Sanna Marin: Europe relies too much on US for security

‘I must be brutally honest with you, Europe isn’t strong enough right now.’

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The war in Ukraine has shown that Europe is over-reliant on the US for security, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has admitted.

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

“I must be brutally honest with you, Europe isn’t strong enough right now. We would be in trouble without the United States,” Marin told an audience at the Lowy Institute.

She added she had spoken with many US politicians who had said they think 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 isn’t strong enough yet,” Marin said.

“We have to make sure that we are building those capabilities when it comes to European defence, European defence industry.”

In a recent speech in Helsinki, Marin said Europe was currently too reliant on China for technology and should invest more in fields such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. (Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Terje Solsvik and Nick Macfie)