Europe must give itself a second life insurance inside NATO.
The outburst of Donald Trump, who in South Carolina on 10 February accused NATO member countries of being "bad payers", has raised concerns in Europe. In Germany, the debate questioned the "life insurance" that NATO represents for Europe, in the words of Analena Baerbock, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs, at the summit of the Weimar triangle on 12 February, in La Celle-Saint-Cloud (Yvelines). His French counterpart, Stéphane Séjourné, replied: "We need a second life insurance, not as a substitute, not against NATO, but in addition." Europe must give itself this second life insurance, in NATO. It can. While in 2024, Russia will increase its military spending to the equivalent of €106 billion, the European countries of the Alliance, according to the NATO Secretary General, will devote more than €350 billion to it. The combined budgets of Germany and France will amount to nearly €133 billion. These figures give a relative picture of the balance of p