Spain: US Remarks on NATO Pushing Europe to Seek Alternatives

Recent remarks by United States officials complaining about NATO allies are pushing European countries to seek alternative security arrangements, Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told La Sexta broadcaster on Tuesday.

“NATO is a mutually beneficial alliance for both Europeans and Americans … But the U.S. administration’s remarks and new positions on Euro-Atlantic security are inviting us Europeans to take a leap in terms of our sovereignty and defence matters,” Albares said. “We must take our citizens’ security and dissuasion into our own hands,” he added.

To do so, he said, the EU should advance toward a pan-European army and integrate its defence industries, but also create a digital single market and a capital markets union. Reuters