LONDON, April 15. /TASS/. Security is a weak point of European countries, most of which cannot provide for their own defense, US Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with the British news and opinion website UnHerd.

"The reality is — it is blunt to say it, but it is also true — that Europe’s entire security infrastructure, for my entire life, has been subsidized by the United States of America," Vance said, calling security a "blind spot" of Europe. "Most European nations do not have militaries that can provide for their reasonable defense." The US vice president noted. "The British are an obvious exception, the French are an obvious exception, the Poles are an obvious exception. But in some ways, they are the exceptions that prove the rule, that European leaders have radically underinvested in security, and that has to change."

Vance argues that reducing Europe's dependence on Washington will be beneficial to both sides. European countries are disadvantaged by being "the permanent security vassal of the United States," he pointed out. "I do not think that Europe being more independent is bad for the United States — it is good for the United States," the vice president said.

Vance, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on February 14, criticized the EU for censorship, including for blocking social networks. Europe is afraid of its own voters and is ineffective to the United States in this form, he said, adding that European countries need a democratic mandate to do anything substantial in the coming years. On February 16, closing the conference, its chairman Christoph Heusgen called the results of the forum "Europe’s nightmare." He said Vance's performance showed that Europe and the US no longer share common values.