NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte lauded President Donald Trump’s efforts to push NATO allies to increase defense spending, amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump has long advocated for NATO allies to ramp up defense spending to between 2% and 5% gross domestic product — and has made it clear that European nations need to shoulder greater responsibility for the security of their continent.
"You're starting to hear the British prime minister and others all committing to much higher defense spending," Rutte told reporters Thursday at the White House. "We're not there. We need to do more, but I really want to work together with you . . . to make sure that we will have a NATO which is really reinvigorated, under your leadership. And we are getting there."
"When you look at Trump 47, what happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering," Rutte said.
Rutte’s comments come as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put forth an $841 billion proposal on March 4 for European Union nations to bolster defense spending.
Likewise, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged in February to boost his country's defense spending to 2.5% of its gross domestic value. That is an increase from the 2.3% the U.K. currently spends, and amounts to a nearly $17 billion increase.
Still, Rutte emphasized the need to strengthen the defense industrial base in both the U.S. and Europe, and cautioned they were falling behind Russia and China in defense production.
As of 2023, the U.S. spent 3.3% of its GDP on defense spending — totaling $880 billion, according to the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. More than 50% of NATO funding comes from the U.S., while other allies — like the United Kingdom, France and Germany — have contributed between 4% and 8% to NATO funding in recent years.
NATO comprises more than 30 countries and originally was formed in 1949 to halt the spread of the Soviet Union.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also encouraged NATO allies to beef up defense spending during a trip to Brussels in February.
"NATO should pursue these goals as well," Hegseth said. "NATO is a great alliance, the most successful defense alliance in history, but to endure for the future, our partners must do far more for Europe’s defense."
Pledges from European and allied nations to increase defense spending coincide with negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.
Nations including the U.K. and France have proposed deploying troops to ensure that Ukraine is protected from future Russian aggression under a peace negotiation.
European defense leaders are meeting in Paris this week to discuss their plans to provide Ukraine with security guarantees as the continent steps up after decades of relying on the U.S.
French President Emmanuel Macron led with an address to the Tuesday gathering of defense chiefs from 30 European and NATO countries after the U.S.’ new "America first" policy direction jolted the Europeans into action.
Macron said it was time to "move from concept to plan," and told French newspaper Le Figaro that France would boost its defense spending from 2% to 3.5% of GDP, amounting to around €30 billion annually.
Details of any peacekeeping force are still widely in flux, but some officials said to expect a targeted deterrence force aimed at protecting key infrastructure rather than a wide blockade of the front lines.
Europeans were dismayed last week when the U.S. announced it would pause all aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, but that pause was lifted Tuesday after Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. All eyes are now on Russia to see if Russian President Vladimir Putin accepts the deal, which came after U.S.-brokered talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.
The U.S. has insisted that it is Europe’s responsibility to offer military resources to help Ukraine deter Russia from invading again once a ceasefire is reached. President Donald Trump has flirted with the idea of not protecting European nations under NATO’s Article 5 if they refuse to meet their defense spending obligations under the treaty.
The new call for Europe's defense was a welcome development for NATO’s eastern flank, where tiny nations have for years beaten out their larger European counterparts in defense spending as a percentage of their GDP.
"We should not be panicking about [Trump statements]," said Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chairman of the Lithuanian parliament’s national security committee.
"Europeans need to think about what sort of troops to put in Ukraine," he told Fox News Digital. "Europeans need to hold most of [our security] now. We need to show good will. Next to good will, you need to show numbers. How many troops can we generate, what sort of troops can we generate, what support we’re going to need from the U.S."
"I’m not going to provide security guarantees beyond very much," Trump had said at his first Cabinet meeting on Feb. 26. "We’re going to have Europe do that."
The United States – NATO’s most militarily powerful member – wasn’t invited to the Paris talks because European nations wanted to show that they are able to shoulder a large part of the job of safeguarding Ukraine once a truce is in effect, a French military official told the Associated Press.
But Jeglinskas said Europe should acquiesce to U.S. demands to pour more into its own defenses as it needs the U.S. for air defenses like the Patriot missile.
"People who are complaining about the U.S. – there's an abundance of that in Europe – yeah, show me the alternative. There’s nothing."
Over the weekend, top Trump advisor Elon Musk posted on X that the U.S. "really should" leave NATO. "Doesn’t make sense for America to pay for the defense of Europe," he wrote.
"It’s common sense, right," Trump told reporters of the NATO alliance last week. "If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them."
Jeglinskas said that in his meetings behind closed doors, U.S. officials have expressed America’s commitment to Article 5 is "as strong as ever."
"Sometimes Trump goes way over to get people to come to a position of reality," said Jonathan Bass, foreign affairs expert and Argent LNG CEO. "The fact that he went so far to what they considered crazy, [the Europeans] actually took him seriously and did what they needed to do."
Lithuania is currently spending 4% on defense and plans to bump that figure to 5-6% next year, which is why Defense Minister Dovile Šakalienė told reporters her nation plans to pay U.S. defense manufacturers "at least $8 billion" more in "the coming years" to boost defenses.
Russian aggression that could extend beyond Ukraine, including potentially into Baltic States like Lithuania, "worries us," she said.
"That’s why we are really pushing forward with our military capability plans, with our defense capacity-building, infrastructure and personnel and acquisitions, from weapons to ammo, building factories, defense industries."
Europe has offered Ukraine around $139 billion in aid since the start of the war, while the U.S. has offered around $128 billion.
But the European Union last week proposed an $841 billion plan to "rearm Europe," which included a $158 billion emergency loan proposal to arm European capacities in vulnerable areas like air defense and ammunition. The plan also calls for relaxing strict debt ceilings agreed to by the bloc for defense spending.
"This is a moment for Europe, and we are ready to step up," said European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen last week.
Šakalienė said "strengthening the northeastern flank" of Europe was the "joint goal," which could mean stationing hypersonic missiles aimed at Russia in Baltic states like Lithuania.
The European Union has a new plan to spend $840 billion more on its own defense after President Donald Trump paused aid to Ukraine and peace negotiations hit a wall.
"I do not need to describe the grave nature of the threats that we face, or the devastating consequences that we will have to endure if those threats would come to pass," EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen told reporters on Tuesday.
She said she had written a letter to the heads of state of all European governments outlining a "set of proposals" to "rearm Europe."
"A new era is upon us," von der Leyen wrote in the letter.
The plan details "how to use all the financial levers at our disposal in order to help member states to quickly and significantly increase expenditures in defense capabilities, urgently now, but also over [a] longer period of time, over this decade."
Countries in the EU would have access to loans of up to $158 billion for defense investment, according to the proposal. It also calls for relaxing strict debt ceilings agreed to by the bloc for defense spending.
"This will allow member states to significantly increase their defense expenditures without triggering the excessive deficit procedure," she said, referring to the rule that requires nations to bring their deficits down if they breach a certain amount.
The proposal also involves using the existing EU budget to "direct more funds towards defense-related investments."
"With this equipment, member states can massively step up their support to Ukraine. So, immediate military equipment for Ukraine," she said.
The new defense plan comes as Washington recalibrates its relationship with Europe, and conservative Republicans push Trump to lead efforts to pull the U.S. out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
European leaders held an emergency summit over the weekend in London to discuss how to support Ukraine after the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy brought peace negotiations to an abrupt halt.
At that summit, European leaders discussed ways to keep military aid flowing, increase economic pressure on Russia, and establish a "coalition of the willing" of European nations ready to offer forces to act as a safeguard against another invasion by Russia once the two sides reach a peace agreement.
"This is a moment for Europe, and we are ready to step up," said von der Leyen.
Even France’s Marine Le Pen, leader of the conservative National Rally party, called the U.S. action a form of "brutality."
"I consider the brutality of this decision to be reprehensible," she said of the move to pause aid.
"It is very cruel for Ukrainian soldiers engaged in a patriotic defense of their country," she insisted, adding that it was "very questionable" not to give the Ukrainians a warning before doing so.
The temporary pause will apply to all U.S. military aid not yet in Ukraine. It is expected to last until the White House determines that Zelenskyy is committed to peace talks.
"We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution," a White House official said.
After President Joe Biden shipped over a $500 million aid package on his way out the door in January, some $3.86 billion from previously approved aid packages remains, a defense official told Fox News Digital, including Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) and anti-tank weapons and thousands of artillery rounds and armored vehicles.
A handful of European leaders are coming under the microscope of critics on social media for issuing pro-Ukraine messages with the exact same wording following Ukraine President Vlodomyr Zelenskyy's fiery meeting with President Donald Trump on Friday.
"Your dignity honours the bravery of the Ukrainian people. Be strong, be brave, be fearless. You are never alone, dear President @ZelenskyyUa. We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace," read verbatim social media posts from at least five different European leaders since Friday.
The president of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, European Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis, European Parliament member Manfred Weber, and European Council President António Costa all posted the same exact social media message on Friday, a review of X shows.
Fox News Digital reached out to the European Parliament and European Commission on Sunday afternoon regarding the posts but did not immediately receive replies.
Social media users quickly caught on that the messages were exactly the same, criticizing them as "kinda creepy" and asking tongue-in-cheek questions such as, "has the EU been bots this whole time?"
Trump asked Zelenskyy to leave the White House on Friday following a fiery meeting in the Oval Office, with Zelenskyy heading to Europe shortly afterward. Trump said Zelenskyy could return to the White House "when he is ready for peace."
Zelenskyy met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday, with the pair spotted on camera embracing upon Zelenskyy's arrival.
"We stand with Ukraine for as long as it may take," Starmer said on Saturday while offering the UK's "unwavering" support for Ukraine.
A group of European leaders met in London on Sunday after Starmer told local media that he had spoken with Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron regarding the UK and France taking the reins on crafting a plan for peace that will eventually be presented to the U.S.
The UK leader vowed in comments on Sunday that the nation is "ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air" to support Ukraine against Russia and ultimately reach a peace deal.
"We discussed a plan today to reach a peace that is tough and fair, that Ukraine will help shape, that's backed by strength, to stop Putin coming back for more," Starmer said on Sunday. "I'm working closely with other European leaders on this, and I'm clear that the U.K. is ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal, working together with our allies, because that is the only way that peace will last."
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard joined "Fox News Sunday" ahead of the London meeting, slamming some European nations for breaking with the U.S. on the value of freedom and reaching peace in Eastern Europe after criticizing Trump's meeting with Zelenskyy.
"I think those who are criticizing [Trump's] efforts in this way are showing that they are not committed to peace, and in the case of many of those European countries, that they're not committed to the cause and values of freedom, even though they speak of this," Gabbard told Fox News' Shannon Bream on Sunday morning when asked about Democrat U.S. politicians criticizing the meeting at the White House and Russia celebrating Trump's tense meeting with Zelenskyy.
"We heard very clearly, during Vice President Vance's speech in Munich, different examples of how these European partners and longtime allies, in many cases, are actually implementing policies that undermine democracy that shows that they don't actually believe in the voices of the people being heard, and implementing anti-freedom policies. We're seeing this in the United Kingdom. We're seeing this in Germany. We saw it with the tossing out of the elections in Romania," she continued.
Chief European Union diplomat Kaja Kallas rejected President Donald Trump's claim that the European Union was made to "screw" the United States on Sunday.
Kallas made the comment while speaking to CBS News' "Face the Nation," arguing the EU is fundamentally about maintaining peace.
"Europe is a peace project. You know, it was created so that we wouldn't have wars between the members of the European Union, and we haven't had any. And, of course, also to do things together, cooperate more," Kallas said.
"You know, coming from a country that joined the European Union 20 years ago. Then, we were actually, you know, pushed by the Americans, you know, [saying] you will not get into NATO, but Europe, the European Union, is something that you should join because it's, it's a good project also for transatlantic relations. So I was quite surprised to hear a comment like that," she added.
Kallas went on to affirm the wide base of support for Ukraine in Europe, and that she has been coordinating with French President Emanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
"The fight that Ukraine is having is not only about Ukraine sovereignty, but it's much, much broader. It's about freedom of the free world, really. It is about the world where international law applies and the world where might does not make right," she said.
The official went on to argue that the U.S. and Europe could grind the Russian war machine to a halt via economic pressure.
"We shouldn't overestimate the power of Russia and underestimate our own power," she argued. "We know that their economy is not doing well. I mean, their inflation is over 20%, their National Fund is almost completely depleted."
"They don't have the same revenues from gas and oil that they used to to fund the war machine. So actually, if we concentrate our efforts, we can put the pressure so that they would stop the war," she continued.
Kallas' comments come after Trump blasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a White House meeting on Friday. He insisted that Ukraine doesn't "have the cards" and must sue for peace rather than relying on an indefinite flow of aid from the U.S.
In a speech to European leaders, Vice President JD Vance said the continent's recent censorship activities were a bigger threat to its existence than Russia.
"The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China. It's not any other external actor," he said in an address at the Munich Security Conference.
"What I worry about is the threat from within the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America."
Vance called out former European Commissioner Thierry Breton, who said in January that if the right wing German AfD party were to win elections in Germany, the results could go the way of Romania.
"These cavalier statements are shocking to American ears," said Vance.
"For years we've been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard."
Romania annulled the results of its December presidential election, because President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence reports alleging a Russian influence campaign on social media to the benefit of Calin Georgescu, the dark horse candidate who won the most votes.
"You can believe it's wrong for Russia to buy social media advertisements to influence your elections. We certainly do. You can condemn it on the world stage, even. But if your democracy can be destroyed with a few hundred thousand dollars of digital advertising from a foreign country, then it wasn't very strong to begin with."
The vice president even called out the organizers of the Munich conference, who he said had "banned lawmakers representing populist parties on both the left and the right from participating in these conversations."
The conference barred the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the newly formed left-populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) for what MSC chair Christoph Heusgen described as a rejection of the conference's principle of "peace through dialogue." Heusgen said the tipping point was when lawmakers with the parties walked out of the room as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was addressing German parliament last June.
"To many of us on the other side of the Atlantic, it looks more and more like old entrenched interests hiding behind ugly Soviet-era words like 'misinformation' and ‘disinformation,’ who simply don't like the idea that somebody with an alternative viewpoint might express a different opinion or, God forbid, vote a different way, or even worse, win an election."
He then said Europe had forgotten the lessons of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's censorship policies.
"Within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents, that closed churches, that canceled elections," Vance said.
"Unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it's sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War's winners. I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they've judged to be ‘hateful content’ or to this very country where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of ‘combating misogyny on the internet.’"
"The backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs."
Vance recounted Adam Smith Connor, who was found guilty in October of breaching the local government's Public Spaces Protection Order, after he stood outside an abortion facility nearly two years ago with his head bowed in silent prayer.
" I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one-off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no," said Vance.
The U.K. law suggests that those within the buffer zone of 200 meters of an abortion clinic cannot attempt to influence someone's decision to access an abortion. Those who are in homes within the buffer zone cannot hang signs outside or shout anti-abortion messages that could be heard in range of the clinic.
Vance also called out Sweden, where Danish activist Rasmus Paludan was sentenced to four months in prison for burning copies of the Quran.
"Sweden's laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, 'grant,' and I'm quoting, ‘a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief,’" said Vance.
Vance's speech had veered away from what European leaders had been expecting to hear - details on President Donald Trump's plan for peace between Russia and Ukraine and how to strengthen the NATO alliance.
"I'm sure you all came here prepared to talk about how exactly you intend to increase defense spending over the next few years, in line with some new target," said Vance.
"I've heard a lot about what you need to defend yourselves from, and of course that's important. But what has seemed a little bit less clear to me, and certainly I think to many of the citizens of Europe, is what exactly it is that you're defending yourselves for."
The vice president went on: "What is the positive vision that animates this shared security compact that we all believe is so important? And I believe deeply that there is no security If you are afraid of the voices, the opinions and the conscience that guide your very own people."
"The crisis this continent faces right now, the crisis I believe we all face together, is one of our own making. If you're running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing America can do for you."
"It is out of the question that the European Union would let other countries ... attack its sovereign borders, whoever they are," Barrot said on French radio, according to Politico.
Barrot added that he doubts Trump would take the extraordinary step of invading Greenland.
"If you're asking me whether I think the United States will invade Greenland, my answer is no. But have we entered into a period of time when it is survival of the fittest? Then my answer is yes," Barrot said.
That stark warning comes after Trump made various statements calling the island territory vital to U.S. national and economic security interests and expressing interest in purchasing it from Denmark. He has made similar comments about wresting the Panama Canal from Panama's control after the U.S. relinquished the canal in 1977.
On Tuesday, the incoming U.S. president would not rule out using military force to gain control of Greenland or the Panama Canal when asked about the issue at a press conference.
A reporter asked Trump if he could assure the world he would not use military or economic coercion to gain control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.
"No, I can't assure you on either of those two. But I can say this, we need them for economic security," Trump said.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized Tuesday that Greenland is not for sale.
Frederiksen told a Danish TV station that Greenlandic Prime Minister Múte Egede "has been very, very clear – that there is a lot of support among the people of Greenland that Greenland is not for sale and will not be in the future either," according to The Hill.
She reportedly told TV 2 that Greenland will choose its own future and said, "We need to stay calm and stick to our principles," while praising the U.S. as a key Danish ally.
In a Truth Social post on Monday, Trump said he was "hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA'." The Republican attached a video that purportedly shows a Greenlander asking the U.S. to buy his country.
Trump's son arrived Tuesday in Nuuk, the Arctic territory's capital. He met with locals, visited cultural sites and shot video for a podcast. The president-elect posted a video showing a plane emblazoned with the word "TRUMP" landing in Nuuk.
"Don Jr. and my Reps landing in Greenland," Trump wrote. "The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!"
At Tuesday's press conference, Trump said of Greenland, "Denmark should give it up."
Ukraine has received its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S., energy company officials confirmed this week— a positive development for Kyiv as it moves to ramp up its purchases of U.S. supplies and protect against broader supply concerns in the region.
Ukraine’s private energy company, DTEK, confirmed it has received some 100 million cubic meters of U.S. LNG in the shipment, which the U.S. shipped to an LNG regasification terminal in Greece.
The DTEK contract is the first significant LNG contract to be struck between Ukraine and the U.S. and will allow Ukraine to purchase an "unspecificed" amount of LNG from Venture Global through 2026. The companies also signed a separate 20-year agreement, in keeping with traditional longer-term LNG supply contracts.
The news comes just hours before Russian gas giant, Gazprom, is slated to halt all piped gas deliveries shipped through Ukrainian pipelines to other European countries, following the expiration of its five-year contract.
Even after the abrupt throttling of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, the EU depends on piped Russian gas for roughly 5% of its total gas imports— sparking fresh fears as to how the bloc might cope in the event of a supply emergency or colder-than-expected winter.
In the interim, Ukrainian officials said, they hope the additional U.S. supplies can help fill in the gap and help ease any near-term supply crises in the EU.
"Cargoes like this are not only providing the region with a flexible and secure source of power, but are further eroding Russia’s influence over our energy system," DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko said in a statement.
As NATO member states struggle to meet their defense spending goals and war rages on Europe's eastern front, officials are struggling to agree on a plan to shore up hundreds of billions of dollars to bolster defenses.
Eight NATO countries did not meet their 2% target for defense spending in 2024. And as many member states struggle with chronically stressed budgets, calls to meet those goals are not being heeded quickly.
The European Commission estimates about 500 billion euros, the equivalent of $524 billion in investments, are needed in the coming decade to defend Europe against evolving threats.
The EU's budget cannot be used to fund defense directly, and some European officials and NATO experts are proposing a global defense bank to dole out funds for military modernization.
A defense, security and resilience (DSR) bank would issue bonds backed by AAA ratings for financially strapped countries to upgrade their defenses and would provide guarantees for commercial banks to offer credit to defense suppliers.
"This is not a substitute to raising defense spending in each of these countries. I think it should be a supplemental tool," Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chairman of the national security committee in the Lithuanian parliament and a former NATO official, told Fox News Digital.
His remarks echo those of incoming President Trump, who has long threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO due to the number of nations missing the mark on the 2% goal for defense spending.
"I think we have to look at it also as an opportunity for the U.S. as well," Jeglinskas added. "I understand the skepticism by Donald Trump of the World Bank and then the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and IFC [International Finance Corporation] and other institutions. I think there's been a lot of capital deployed and a lot of investments that these banks or institutions do. The real impact is, at best, questionable. So, I think we have to have very clear KPIs [key performance indicators]. We need to build defense."
The United States' $824 billion defense budget in 2023 equaled half of total defense spending by all NATO member states combined at $1.47 trillion.
The return of Trump to the White House, coupled with a U.S. push to refocus on China, has left Europeans wondering whether the U.S. will have less of an appetite to defend Europe in years to come.
More EU defense chiefs and foreign ministers have pitched the idea of issuing joint debt through bonds to finance military projects.
But some countries like Germany have voiced concerns about maintaining their own sovereignty and a disproportionate financial burden on some countries.
"For allies across both the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions, the bank could go beyond offering low-interest loans for defense modernization to facilitating equipment leasing, currency hedging, and supporting critical infrastructure and rebuilding efforts in conflict zones like Ukraine," Murray wrote.
"An additional critical function of the DSR bank would be to underwrite the risk for commercial banks, enabling them to extend financing to defense companies across the supply chain."
The goal would be to offer financing to small and medium-sized defense companies that often struggle with access to funds.
"By providing loans with extended maturities, the bank would offer predictable and sustainable funding for defence modernisation. Its governance structures would align funding with collective security goals, such as upgrading arsenals and investing in emerging technologies," Jeglinskas wrote in a recent op-ed for the Financial Times.
Asked how the DSR bank would get countries to agree on defense funding priorities, Jeglinskas likened the idea to the U.K.-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a military alliance that includes Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.
Jeglinskas noted the 33 trillion euros in European assets under management across the continent.
"There's really no political will, no risk appetite to move them anywhere besides the kind of bond markets where they rest now," he said. "But several nations need to build that initial capital, and then, by using the sovereign rating to get to hopefully AAA in capital markets, raise that money from bond markets and to start funding defense programs."
The European Investment Bank has doled out long-term loans and guarantees to European nations' projects that align with EU policy goals.
"But even they are struggling with kind of shifting their mandate towards more dual-use technologies is still not allowed in their funding package," said Jeglinskas.
"Of course, every other bank in Europe is looking at EIB for their signals. That signaling hasn't been there yet. So, that's the point. We need to create some sort of mechanism, and that kind of global defense bank would be one of the tools that we could use to rally the capital and really direct it toward defense. So, it's really creating another multilateral lending institution."
President-elect Donald Trump is threatening tariffs against a bloc of countries when he assumes office as part of his anticipated effort to reinforce oil and gas production in the U.S.
Trump, in a Truth Social post, said that he told the European Union that if it doesn't begin to import more U.S. oil and gas, it will be faced with tariffs under his upcoming presidency.
"I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas," Trump wrote. "Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!"
Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump vowed to restore energy dominance by bolstering the production of American-made oil and natural gas. Specifically, Trump has revealed that he plans to expand fracking and lift President Joe Biden's pause on new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export permits.
Trump's latest tariff threat comes amid a number of warnings against several countries, including China, Mexico, and Canada, if they don't act to secure the border and stop drug trafficking.
Trump said he would impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican exports, unless the countries work to stop the flow of illegal immigration and illicit drugs coming into the U.S.
After Trump's proposed tariff against Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened to cut off energy and critical mineral exports to the U.S. if the incoming president implements such a tariff on all Canadian products. However, Trump was unfazed by the threat, saying, "That's okay if he does that."
Trump has reportedly engaged in "very productive" conversations with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau since threatening a new tax.
The PM traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with the incoming president, where Trudeau reportedly told Trump he couldn't levy the tariff, because it would kill the Canadian economy completely, Fox News previously reported.
Trump then suggested to Trudeau that Canada become the 51st state, which, according to sources, reportedly caused the prime minister and others to laugh nervously.
Fox News' Bret Baier and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
