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Weekend Reads
Europe’s Role in Global Competition
“If we allow this Russian aggression to be rewarded, they will do it again,” warned Walter P. Stern Chair Nikki R. Haley at Hudson’s third annual Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) Strategy Summit. The summit brought together leading policymakers and experts to discuss the economic climate of the CEE region, with an added emphasis on the importance of financing defense investments amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
That same day, Hudson hosted Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, former secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, to discuss the European security environment and the importance of economic security and alliance cohesion.
Watch the minister’s full remarks, read the transcript, or listen to the event podcast here.
Key takeaways from the events are below.
Key Insights
1. European nations are focused on three main avenues of cooperation with the United States: Ukraine aid, economic ties, and defense industrial investment.
“We need to support Ukraine because it is in our security interest to support Ukraine. We are safer when Ukraine prevails, and therefore one of the first decisions I had the honor [to] be part of as a new minister of finance in February was actually to triple Norwegian military support to Ukraine. . . . Then of course, trade and economy. And again, we believe in free trade, open trade, rules-based trade. Norway, having a small open economy, of course, we are dependent on trade. And thirdly, I will expect us also to highlight some [of] the areas where Norway is playing an important role in United States. . . . [The National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System is] a product of US-Norwegian technology—two companies, Raytheon and Kongsberg, developing a very advanced missile. Kongsberg is actually now investing in joint strike missiles and some other advanced missiles which they’re producing in the United States, so military cooperation.”
— Jens Stoltenberg, Finance Minister, Norway
2. Central and Eastern European nations are important partners in the West’s competition against China.
“[Germany] outsourced a lot of our automobile supply chains to Slovakia and Poland and other countries. And we have a lot of industrial links between Eastern Europe and Germany. And I think that is likely to continue, but it’s not [just] cheap labor. I think it is more value-added and quality. And in these segments like automobile, even though we’re being challenged by others, including China for example, we have had a very good product. So I think on regulatory issues, on growth issues, there is a lot of benefit from Eastern Europe, and I think we should use that. . . . European unity is important. We don’t want Eastern Europe not to be part of Europe on all of these policy issues. I think on trade, on defense, and on many issues, there is always a danger that Europe is divided.”
— Lars-Hendrik Röller, Founder and Chair, Berlin Global Dialogue and Former Chief Economic Advisor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel
3. US engagement helps reduce Chinese influence in Europe.
“We will cooperate more if we have a successful NATO summit and we cooperate in defense. And if we overcome the economic and trade recalibration to [reach] a beneficial deal, then yes, then we will work together, also, on the China issue. . . . But we cannot rule out the opposite scenario: that we are not able to reach an agreement. . . . Then there will be temptation to . . . work closer with China. So to put it more simply, if as Europeans we are not pushed by Americans to the Chinese embrace, then we will not be embraced by China.”
— Tomáš Pojar, National Security Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic
Quotes may be edited for clarity and length.
Go Deeper
Amid uncertain peace talks over Moscow’s war in Ukraine, Europe is moving to strengthen its defenses against a future Russian invasion. “The first step is putting an end to Russian shipments of liquefied natural gas,” write Matthew Boyse and James Glassman in Fortune.
Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksii Goncharenko joined Hudson’s Luke Coffey for a conversation on the state of US-Ukraine relations and why Ukraine’s fight for sovereignty matters to both the US and Europe.
Watch the event, listen to the podcast, or read the transcript here.
If the Trump administration fails to respond to Russia’s growing influence in Africa, the Kremlin will lock in another strategic foothold on NATO’s southern flank, warns Zineb Riboua.
