E5: How the format could change European • Table.Briefings

E5 meeting in Warsaw in mid-January. From left: Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, Sébastien Lecornu from France, Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Boris Pistorius from Germany, and British representative Luke Pollard.

JD Vance’s speech at the Munich Security Conference is further proof that the new Trump administration does not think much of Western European democracies. In terms of security policy, the E5 are trying to promote European autonomy.

Away from the Munich Security Conference, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth held out the prospect of further changes to the European security architecture on Friday. „Now is the time for investment, because you can’t assume that the American presence on the continent will remain forever,“ he said during a visit to Poland. Shortly afterwards, US Vice-President JD Vance showed in Munich what he thinks of the Western European democracies. „For years we have been told that everything we finance and support is done in the name of our common democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is touted as a defense of democracy.“

E5: How the format could change European security architecture

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