Amid the ongoing fierce conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the fear of direct military confrontation across the European continent is beginning to deepen. The situation has become so tense that now preparations are not limited only to the deployment of weapons on the borders, but extraordinary steps are being taken, from cutting the health budget related to the lives of common citizens to reactivating decades-old underground medical bunkers. A two-day emergency brainstorming session of the defense chiefs of all 32 member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has started in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. The command of this high-level conference is in the hands of Italy's senior naval officer Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone. The single and biggest agenda of the meeting is how the whole of Europe will defend itself as a united front if a direct war with Russia breaks out at any time, how prompt investment in military technologies will be ensured and how arms supplies to Ukraine will continue without any interruption. What is 'NATO 3.0': Europe's new strategic direction after coming out of the American security umbrella. After US President Donald Trump repeatedly warned Europe to bear the financial burden of its own security, this military alliance has made a major change in its entire strategic direction. In Western defense circles this major policy change is being named 'NATO 3.0'. According to current figures, the United States alone bears a whopping 57 percent of NATO's collective military expenditure. Due to this excessive dependence, there was always additional economic and strategic pressure on Washington. Now under the new framework of NATO 3.0, European countries will have to shoulder the primary responsibility for the security of their borders and airspace. America's main strategic focus is now shifting to the Indo-Pacific region, where it has to deal with China's growing economic and naval challenges. However, despite the new balance of power, the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Europe will remain, as always, an American general. Along with this, the independent nuclear weapons arsenals of Britain and France will remain the main basis of Europe's security guarantee as before. Spending 5 percent of GDP on defense by 2035: A bitter decision to cut the welfare budget. Sensing the future threats, NATO member countries have set a historic and tough target of spending 5 percent of their total gross domestic product (GDP) directly on national defense and internal security by the year 2035. Under the financial blueprint, 3.5 per cent of this 5 per cent will be earmarked for direct procurement of modern combat weapons, missile systems and ammunition, while the remaining 1.5 per cent allocation will be reserved for creation of specialized security infrastructure, secure communication lines and logistics. To meet this huge defense budget, European countries are having to take extremely unpleasant and tough economic decisions in their domestic budgets. A developed and welfare country like the Netherlands has made an official proposal to make huge cuts in its national health budget and many important schemes related to social welfare. Apart from this, a concrete plan is being made to raise additional revenue of more than Rs 54 thousand crore (about 6.5 billion dollars) annually by imposing new taxes to meet the defense needs, which is expected to have a direct impact on the concessions provided to the citizens. From Germany to Britain, preparations on a war footing: Cold War bunkers and new weapons factories Anticipating a possible future world war with Russia, major European powers have begun to adapt their civil defense and defense production systems on a war footing on the ground: Germany's bunker strategy: Germany is now rapidly evacuating the underground medical bunkers built in 1979 during the Cold War era and which later came to a complete standstill and refurbishing them with state-of-the-art life-saving systems. So that mass casualties can be treated in case of emergency. UK Missile and Ammunition Mission: The United Kingdom has decided to set up six brand new factories to make ammunition and high-yield explosives to give an unprecedented boost to its defense production. Along with this, the British Army is going to buy 7,000 domestically manufactured advanced long-range missile and rocket weapons to increase its firepower. Poland's civilian military training model: Poland, one of Russia's closest neighbors, has prepared a mandatory program to provide intensive military training to 1 lakh civilians every year from 2027, under which a huge reserve army of 5 lakh trained citizens will be created. Civil alert of Lithuania and Sweden: Baltic nation Lithuania has started directly conscripting 5,000 youth into the army as part of compulsory military service. At the same time, Sweden, which recently became a member of NATO, has issued an official advisory to all its citizens directing them to keep the stock of ration, water and medicines ready in advance to survive without any government help for at least 7 days in case of war or any major crisis. More than 90% dependence on American weapons: The biggest challenge for self-reliance in front of Europe is that the biggest weakness of European countries is that their armies are completely dependent on American arms manufacturing companies. According to defense data, Europe's arms imports have registered a staggering 143 percent jump within the last few years compared to 2016-20. At present, major countries like Norway and Italy buy 93 percent of their total military needs from America only. In addition, the Netherlands depends on the Pentagon and US defense contractors for 89 percent of its arms requirements, Britain for 85 percent and Denmark for 82 percent. This heavy interdependence has raised questions about Europe's ability to make independent decisions in times of crisis. This is the main reason why European members of NATO are now competing to achieve strategic self-reliance by strengthening their domestic arms factories, joint fighter aircraft projects and indigenous missile defense systems as an alternative to American weapons.
