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The EU's top diplomat said EU members are not spending enough on defence.
Russia poses an existential threat to the security of the European Union and the only way to deal with it is to increase defense spending, EU foreign policy chief Kaia Callas said.
While warning of a possible attack by Russia in the coming years, Callas added that the EU has offered Russia alternatives for too long.
Callas' rallying cry was the latest in a series of increasingly alarming warnings from European officials calling for a defense “wake-up” from Moscow's tanks invaded Ukraine in 2022.
“Many of our national intelligence agencies are giving us information that Russia could test the EU's readiness to defend itself in three to five years,” she said, addressing the European Defense Agency's annual conference in Brussels on Wednesday.
“Russia poses an existential threat” to Europe's security “today, tomorrow and until we invest enough in our defense,” she added.
Callas also acknowledged that US President Donald Trump was right to say EU members were not spending enough on defence.
Earlier this month, Trump said NATO members must spend 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense—an increase from the current target of 2 percent and a level that no NATO country, including the United States, currently meets.
“The EU's message to the US is clear. We must do more for our own defense and take a fair share of responsibility for Europe's security,” Callas said.
EU countries have increased their military budgets since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine. But policymakers admit they will have to go further as they struggle to cope with Moscow's massive military output.
Last month, NATO chief Mark Rutte said Europe needed to “turbocharge” defense spending and production if it wanted to prevent Russia from starting a bigger war in the future.
“Time is not on Russia's side. But it is not necessarily ours. Because we're still not doing enough. There should be no doubt in our minds that we must spend more to prevent war. But we also have to prepare for war,” Callas said.
