Ukrainian war shows that Europe is too dependent on the US, says Finland’s prime minister | Popgen Tech

HELSINKI, Dec 2 (Reuters) – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shown that Europe is too dependent on the United States for its own security, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Friday.

Speaking at a think tank in Sydney, Australia, Marin advocated boosting Europe’s defense capabilities, including arms production.

“I have to be brutally honest with you, Europe is not strong enough right now. We would be in trouble without the United States,” Marin told an audience at the Lowy Institute.

She added that she had spoken to many American politicians who said they thought Europe should be stronger.

“The United States has given a lot of weapons, a lot of financial aid, a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Europe is still not strong enough,” Marin said.

“We have to make sure that we build those capabilities when it comes to European defense, European defense industry.”

In a recent speech in Helsinki, Marin said Europe is currently too reliant on China for technology and needs to invest more in fields such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.