To achieve strategic autonomy, EU must do more than just boosting defense

For European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and some other European Union leaders, their top priority these days seems to be to get a monstrous €800 billion ($871 billion) for the ReArm Europe plan to boost the EU's defense capability.

The argument is that the plan is necessary to overcome the EU's lack of defense manufacturing capability, which has been exposed by the three-year-long Russia-Ukraine conflict, especially with EU member states trying to continuously supply military equipment and ammunition to Kyiv.

The other argument justifying the plan is US President Donald Trump's dramatic policy change on US allies, especially his administration's distancing from and trashing of European countries.