Defence was the main item on the news wires last week, with a blizzard of US initiatives: President Trump proposed Ukraine peace talks, reiterated demands for increased European military spending, and expressed hopes for a coordinated reduction in US, Russian and Chinese military spending further down the line. These announcements from the US appear to have caught the EU off-guard, and an emergency summit has been called by France to coordinate a response. Many European countries spend less than NATO’s 2% target. None spends more than Russia, with an outlay of $100 billion in 2023 (some estimates suggest that this