The United States will not come to the aid of Europe in the event of a military threat to the region, says Armin Papperger, CEO of the German defense concern Rheinmetall. In an interview with the Financial Times, the businessman emphasized that in recent decades, European leaders have taken for granted that the United States would lend a helping hand in the event of a military threat.

“This won’t happen again,” Papperger stated.

The head of Rheinmetall explained that the American political establishment is now reorienting its emphasis. “The US pays more attention to the Asia-Pacific region than to Europe,” said Armin Papperger.

The German industrialist noted that Washington sent its European allies “a very clear signal: from now on we will not pay for you.”

He added that Germany will continue to restore its military potential regardless of who becomes the next US president - Joe Biden or Donald Trump.

Papperger also called on European countries to create larger groups of defense companies that could compete with the American ones.

Provocative statements

The topic of Washington's commitment to military support for Europe came into focus after Donald Trump's statements in February 2024.

Then, during a speech at a rally in support of his candidacy for the presidency, the billionaire recounted his conversation with one of the leaders of NATO countries when he was head of state. In that conversation, according to Trump, he threatened to abandon this country to its fate in the event of a “Russian attack” if defense spending within NATO was not increased.

“You didn’t pay? Have you broken your obligations? No, I won't defend you. Moreover, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You have to pay. We have to pay the bills,” he recalled.

  • Donald Trump and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg

  • AP

  • © Evan Vucci

Donald Trump assured those gathered that after this conversation, “hundreds of billions of dollars flowed into NATO.” Let us recall that Trump, as President of the United States (from 2017 to 2021), regularly expressed complaints against those NATO members who, in his opinion, invested too little money in the alliance.

After making the announcement at a campaign rally, Trump expanded on his message on his own social media site, Truth Social, writing that Washington should end the practice of giving aid to other countries “without any strings attached” and that the United States should sharply reduce the amount of funds allocated to its allies.

“From now on, the US Senate, do you hear? “No country should provide any funds in the form of foreign aid simply on a grant basis, unless this is done in the form of a loan,” the Republican emphasized.

Trump's words were criticized in the West, and some European politicians began to voice ideas on how the EU could ensure its own security.

Thus, MEP from the Czech Republic Mikulas Peksa proposed creating an EU army, since the United States cannot be relied upon if Donald Trump becomes president in 2024. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said the Republican presidential candidate's words should serve as a "wake-up call" for EU members to invest more in defense.

For her part, the head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, said that the European Union must be prepared to confront threats without the support of the United States. To do this, the EU must spend

more funds to “strengthen the defense industry and take a practical approach regarding the strategic autonomy” of the association, Metsola emphasized.

Changing priorities

According to Konstantin Blokhin, an employee of the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the statement by the head of Rheinmetall that the United States will not come to Europe’s aid is too exaggerated, but contains some truth about Washington’s changing priorities.

“He is right that in fact the priority for the United States is Asia, the growing China, and Europe is the periphery. All US attention will be focused on China. But we must not forget that there are NATO bases on the territory of European countries, where the main driving force is the United States. No one has closed them yet and there are no plans to withdraw American troops from Europe,” the expert said.

  • German defense concern Rheinmetall

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Henning Kaiser/picture alliance

The head of the Rheinmetall concern will be a direct beneficiary of the potential decision of the EU countries to increase their military-political subjectivity, which is why he speaks from such maximalist positions, added Konstantin Blokhin.

“Europe has now become a cash cow for the American military industrial complex. The economies of Europe are used to increase the power of the American military-industrial complex. But European military industrialists want huge volumes of orders for weapons and equipment to come to them, so they talk about the need for greater independence from the United States in the security sphere,” the political scientist explained.

A similar opinion is shared by Pavel Feldman, Candidate of Political Sciences and Associate Professor at the Academy of Labor and Social Relations. According to him, such a statement by Armin Papperger is unnecessarily alarmist.

“Why it comes from the lips of Germany’s largest military industrialist is generally understandable. Over the past 30 years, the authorities of rich European countries have shifted the responsibility for their security to Washington. They invested in business and the social sphere, ignoring their military-industrial complex, reducing their armies to the minimum quantitative and qualitative composition. At the moment, representatives of the European defense-industrial complex are ringing the alarm bell and saying that it is time to invest money not in the social sphere, not in economic development, but in the production of military equipment and equipment. Of course, this is beneficial for a person like the head of Rheinmetall, because the money will go to him,” explained RT’s interlocutor.

However, the words of the German military industrialist also indicate that the EU is seriously afraid of the US refusal to fulfill its security obligations, says Pavel Feldman.

“There is an agreement within NATO to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. However, it is not formally fixed, and not all European countries can maintain the level of these expenses. Donald Trump openly stated that such a game on the part of the Europeans is dishonest and the concern for their safety cannot be shifted to American taxpayers. If Trump becomes president, the United States may well demonstratively abandon its role as a military shield for Europe. And even under Biden, Washington has been unable to agree on a package of financial military assistance to Ukraine for almost six months. This makes the Europeans very worried, because they are afraid that the United States might cheat them in the same way,” the analyst commented on the situation.

He added that the United States will not leave NATO and will not leave Europe alone, but Washington intends to change the vector of its foreign policy.

“One of the signals of a change in priorities in Washington was the resignation of Victoria Nuland from the post of deputy head of the US State Department and the appointment to this post of Kurt Campbell, who has a reputation as a major specialist on Asia. America sees that the Asia-Pacific region is becoming the center of gravity of the modern world; Asian markets are ahead of European markets in their development and growth rates. The United States is joining the struggle for influence in this region, and the aging and economically weakening Europe is no longer considered a priority either in the economy, or in politics, or in the defense sphere,” the political scientist noted.

Therefore, Europe will try to increase its military-industrial and defense potential and its political sovereignty, says Pavel Feldman.

“The dominant idea in Europe now is disappointment in the United States, which, in essence, inspired the Ukrainian crisis and then left the Europeans alone with Russia, which is gaining potential. Therefore, most likely, in the future, under any president of the United States, Washington’s influence in Europe will weaken,” concluded RT’s interlocutor.