NEW YORK, February 17. /TASS/. The message that the US sent to its allies at the Munich Security Conference last weekend came as a shock to Europeans and "left the trans-Atlantic alliance clinically dead," Marc Champion wrote in a column for Bloomberg.
According to the columnist, US Vice President JD Vance’s speech "dripped with contempt for those in the room and offered a series of messages that are likely to alter Europe’s security outlook."
Champion noted that Vance had implied that Europe is "too weak to deserve consultation or a place at the table with the great powers that would conduct the talks, namely the US, Russia and potentially China." In turn, proposals to bolster European defense by European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen who "put on a brave face when she spoke just before Vance" "are vital, but too late by a decade."
The columnist pointed out that "the last week has been more than a wakeup call for Europeans. It has realized their worst fears." "Leaders and defense officials now know they’re on their own, that they can’t rely on the US to respect NATO’s Article V collective defense clause, and that Trump has no desire to include them in the deal he hopes to make," he noted. Champion added that everyone present during Vance’s speech, including Vladimir Zelensky, is aware that "Europe is woefully ill-prepared" to "pick up the vast tab, including security guarantees" for Ukraine.
"The bottom line is that Europe still needs the US and knows it, but Trump’s America no longer sees a need for Europe," the columnist concluded.