US seeks to make the EU its vassal – Moscow

The declaration on cooperation signed by the European Union and NATO is further proof that the EU is under the thumb of the US-led military bloc, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

In a statement, Zakharova said that the document, signed a day earlier, “confirms that the European Union is completely subjugated to the tasks of the North Atlantic bloc, which serves as a tool to coercively enforce US interests.”

She went on to say that “under the guise of ‘strengthening the transatlantic bond’” the declaration promotes the provisions of NATO’s strategic concept, which was adopted in June 2022.

According to the diplomat, the declaration views transatlantic security “through the lens of opposing our country, ramping up arms and military hardware supplies to the Kiev regime, increasing military mobility in the European ‘theater of war,’ and further expansion of NATO.”

The document’s provisions basically formalize “the secondary nature” of the EU defense policies to those of NATO while “nullifying the EU’s claims to autonomy in this area,” she stated.

Zakharova also described the document as “another eulogy to the philosophy of Western superiority.” “It bluntly states that NATO and the EU will use all political, economic and military means ‘in the interests of our one billion citizens’,” she claimed.

Against this backdrop, Washington’s motives are obvious, the spokeswoman said. The US wants to drag the European Union into the “global rivalry” and, should it succeed, “the Europeans would face the unenviable fate of being an American vassal.” This would mean that the EU would be “losing positions in global politics and economics, with each step becoming increasingly dependent on Washington,” she added.

Zakharova wondered whether ordinary European citizens really want to see such an outcome, while “paying for this protracted confrontation out of their own pockets.”

The EU-NATO joint declaration was signed on Tuesday by NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, President of the European Council Charles Michel, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. They vowed to elevate their partnership “to the next level,” noting that the West is confronted “with the gravest threat to Euro-Atlantic security in decades” amid the Ukraine conflict.