Europe urges Trump to support Ukraine, avoid trade wars

Charles Micheleuropean Council chief

I trust the American society,

European Council chief Charles Michel said as he and others urged Trump to continue to support Ukraine, as they arrived at a meeting of nearly 50 European leaders in Budapest

We need to discuss — but that is perhaps for NATO, we can ask NATO to discuss — [whether] the 2 percent target [is] enough,

Kubilius said

Mark Ruttegeneral

We will have to spend more … It will be much more than the 2 percent. I’m clear about that,

Rutte said on arrival at the European Political Community summit in Budapest on Thursday

Mark Ruttegeneral

I look forward to [sitting] down with Donald Trump to discuss how to face these threats collectively,

Rutte added ahead of his meeting with leaders in the Hungarian capital

Mark Ruttegeneral

He is right about this,

Rutte said, just hours after the latter’s election victory

A Trump victory is very painful for Europeans, as it confronts them with a question they’ve tried hard to hide from: ‘How do we deal with a United States that sees us more as a competitor and a nuisance than a friend to work with?

said Georgina Wright, deputy director for International Studies at the Institut Montaigne in Paris

[The ... The] Russians can produce [within] six months everything that Germany has in their stocks,

he said at the outset of a three-hour grilling by MEPs

If we want to defend ourselves, we need to spend at least €10 billion up to 2028,

Kubilius said

Don’t expect any competition between myself and NATO,

Kubilius said

We need to spend more — not because that is a demand from President Trump, but because of Putin,

he told MEPs

With the resources we have now, in the 10 days we’d spend waiting for NATO to come and help us, we’d be occupied,

he added

Space remains underused in defense,

he added

We need to take NATO’s defense plans and [see] what it means in practical terms,

he said

Jens Stoltenberggeneral

I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election, the U.S. will remain a strong and committed NATO ally,

Stoltenberg said

It's going to be a rough ride and a scary ride, from the perspective of America's commitment to European defense, it's going to to be a rough ride for American assistance to Ukraine,

Hunter Christie said

If Trump does want to negotiate with Russia to end the war on his first day, which is the third week in January, then Europeans need to get together to work out how they would potentially manage that,

Arnold separately told Newsweek

Most people expect, or at least fear, that Trump probably will slow down and eventually just stop, or significantly reduce, U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, which will put Europeans in an almost impossible situation, similar to what we had earlier this year when aid was blocked by Congress,

Hunter Christie said

Governments of every European nation have repeatedly failed to prepare and sustain their defences for the last 30 years,

Emma Salisbury, an associate fellow at the U.K.-based Council on Geostrategy think tank, said in a statement on social media

I think they're very worried, but they've only really got themselves to blame. Time is ticking."

Arnold said

I think it's rational to expect Trump, pretty quickly after he's inaugurated, to start asking Europeans to spend a lot more on defense,

he argued, and this may not stop at the 2 percent mark