The envoy questioned whether Europe would be a dynamic economy or somewhere Americans visit for lovely wines, cheeses and beers.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned Thursday that members of the alliance could be “Russia’s next target,” calling for a rapid rise in defense spending to prevent a war similar to those seen by past generations.

Secretary-General Mark Rutte chastised some allies for moving too slowly when it comes to ramping up defense spending.

Former Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said after the Ukraine war, Europe must be ready for further Russian aggression.

Europe should prepare for war ‘like our grandparents endured’, warns Nato chief - Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte said Europe is already Russia’s next target and ‘we are already in harm’s way’

U.S. officials reportedly said that they remain unsatisfied with the progress allies are making when it comes to bolstering their own capabilities.

Europeans find themselves stranded between hostile powers, Russia and the United States, with key decisions looming over the future of Ukraine.

By Gram Slattery and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The United States wants Europe to take over the majority of NATO's conventional defense capabilities, from intelligence to missiles, by 2027,

The United States has asked Europe to take over most of Nato’s conventional defence capabilities — including intelligence and missile systems — by 2027, Reuters reported, citing Pentagon officials who briefed diplomats in Washington this week.

If Putin is “prepared to sacrifice ordinary Russians in this way, what is he prepared to do to us?” the NATO chief said.

European officials are growing concerned that an emerging US-brokered peace deal in Ukraine could be exploited by Russia, paving the way for a reinvasion of territory in the war-battered nation’s eastern Donbas region.