In the current situation - I do not see Europe having any other choice but to emancipate itself in terms of defense. For many years, the question has been raised that the Old Continent should have a greater financial contribution to the common defense - Atlantic and transatlantic. But in this case, it is not about Europe's contribution. Some of Donald Trump's recent actions practically mean a weakening and outright break with the transatlantic relationship - Trump took Putin's side in the conflict with Ukraine. This was stated in the program “Offensive with Lyubomir Ognyanov” on NOVA News by political scientist Assoc. Prof. Ognyan Minchev, commenting on the question of whether Europe is on the way to emancipating itself from the US in the “Defense” sector.
In the words of the political scientist “regarding the conflict in Ukraine in the months before Trump was elected president – all experts expected a positive result”. “We expected in practice, most likely… that the best that we want will happen. I think this approach has already lost its value. The opposite – is now much more realistic. We expect the worst option. And if something better happens, thank God”, he explained.
Minchev also commented on the question of how to explain the “turns” in Trump's decisions, who in recent weeks introduced tariffs for which he later gave a reprieve, as well as giving contradictory signals regarding Russia and Ukraine. “The explanations for this may be different. One of them has a purely psychological aspect - probably this is how Trump perceives and expresses the world around him. The other is - that this is the strategy of practically putting the other side in a blockade, without knowing what the real goal of Trump and his administration is. Both explanations have their value and may not be the only ones. But in any case, whoever deals with Trump - must expect everything and be ready for the worst option, because it is most likely to happen,” commented the political scientist.
Regarding the "nuclear umbrella" in Europe, which was proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron and the possibility of Britain joining it, he stated that: "At the moment, there is no such signal from London. Unlike France, which has completely independent nuclear forces, those of Britain are to some extent integrated with those of the United States. Although both countries have nuclear weapons, they can hardly completely replace the American nuclear umbrella that has been spread over the Old Continent for over 80 years. Therefore, if London makes such a decision, it will also affect the status of these nuclear powers. But Europe has no other choice but to use what is available and try to increase its defense capability, which will make it protected from possible Russian aggression or ill-will"
According to Minchev, "the reformatting of NATO and the North Atlantic Treaty is already happening before our eyes. "The way in which relations between the US and Europe are developing in different directions is leading to a weakening of the transatlantic relationship. I personally hope, and I suppose most reasonable people hope, that there will be no complete rupture of this relationship. However, we should not close our eyes to the fact that there is a very rapidly opening gap between Washington and Brussels in two directions. First, the Trump administration, for purely ideological reasons, rejects today's Europe as it is. And the second reason is that in Trump's eyes, the EU is a hostile force to America," the political scientist explained.