Signed on a warship deck in Gdynia with PMs Tusk and Kristersson present, the deal ends three decades of Polish submarine capability atrophy and gives Saab its largest-ever order
Merz, Macron, Meloni, Starmer and Tusk meet in Berlin to harden NATO's European pillar before Ankara, sidelining Madrid over the 5% target
In a White House meeting on June 25, Trump publicly blamed NATO allies for not joining the Iran war; Secretary General Rutte defended members by noting Europe hosted 4,000-5,000 US aircraft
Formal government-to-government security treaties that complement or bypass NATO, now numbering 160-plus among European states after Russia's 2022 invasion accelerated their pace.
State-compelled military service, reinvigorated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine since 2022, is expanding across ten EU states and Taiwan, reshaping NATO force-generation and global defence budgets.
The US pledge to use nuclear weapons on behalf of non-nuclear allies, shaping proliferation choices in South Korea, Japan, and Europe as Chinese and North Korean arsenals grow.
Germany's Federal Chancellor since May 2025, Friedrich Merz is steering the largest German rearmament program since reunification and reshaping Berlin's role in NATO.
The unresolved sovereignty dispute between Serbia and Kosovo, rooted in Kosovo's 2008 independence declaration, that has kept the western Balkans' most volatile territorial question open for nearly two decades.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, begun February 24, 2022, is the largest armed conflict in Europe since 1945 and the defining fault line between Russia and the Western alliance.
Ukraine's wartime president since 2019, Zelensky transformed from TV comedian to the most visible leader in Europe's largest land war since 1945.
Berlin abandons the troubled €18bn anti-submarine warship line for eight TKMS MEKO A-200s, sinking Rheinmetall shares and lifting TKMS
A hijacked Magura V5 explodes at Constanța's Pier 78; three more from the swarm are still unaccounted for
~40% of European air traffic hit; Russia's spoofing antennae up from 3 to 36; ministers' jets jammed