Czech President Petr Pavel has urged the United States to give Europe more time to take care of the continent's security and contain an increasingly aggressive russia. In particular, he urged Washington not to "push Europeans to the abyss."
He said this in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
Thus, Pavel said that European countries cannot ensure lasting peace in Ukraine without American help, and US President Donald Trump is right to demand that they significantly increase defense spending. At the same time, he stressed that it will take years to replace some of the protections that Washington currently provides.
"The US will try to put pressure on the Europeans to do this faster. Let's put enough pressure on the Europeans, but let's not push them to the abyss," he said.
The Czech President also said the aim of the summit in The Hague and beyond was to "keep the Americans" in the region. He expressed optimism that the allies would agree to increase military investment and that the US would abide by NATO's Article 5 - the collective defence clause that obliges alliance members to defend each other.
"I believe that we can maintain unity. European allies would welcome a much stronger statement that russia is and will be, at least in the short term, the biggest challenge to our security," the Czech President stressed.
Pavel said the summit declaration would be "extremely brief" and would likely refrain from previous promises of financial and military support for Ukraine, as well as the prospect of the country joining the alliance.
The Czech President added that Europe needed the US to step up pressure on the Kremlin through economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation and military deterrence.
"We clearly see that Donald Trump is leaving the door open for future relations, mainly economic, with russia. I suspect that he does not fully understand what russia and russians are," he said.
According to Pavel, the West should continue to arm Ukraine in order to prevent russia from declaring victory and feeling rewarded for its aggression.
"I believe that NATO is and will be the cornerstone of European security. We must coordinate our actions very closely with the United States, because it is also in their interests not to allow russia to win this conflict," he concluded.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has decided on the largest rearmament program since the Cold War. It provides for an extraordinary expansion and strengthening of deterrence and defense capabilities in the coming years.
On June 5, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that NATO allies cannot rely on the United States for defense and must step up their own efforts. Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that Ukraine has been invited to the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, to be held on June 24-25.
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