José Alberto de Azeredo Lopes, PhD, Portugal’s defense minister, calls reducing “common defense,” “common values” and the “transatlantic bond” to whether or not a nation spends two percent of its gross domestic product on defense disgraceful, says it’s urgent for NATO’s upcoming ministerial meeting to send a message of alliance unity, communicates optimism about the European Defence Fund (but notes that it’s not “an El Dorado”) and more during a June 13, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian.

Heather Conley, Europe program director, and senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia and the Arctic at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the US is diminishing its own “influence and strength” by distancing allies through aluminum and steel tariffs, previews the upcoming NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, Belgium, and more during a June 13, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Washington. The interview was conducted at the 2018 EU Security & Defense Washington Symposium that was co-hosted by CSIS and the EU Delegation to the US.

Maj. Gen. Christopher Craige, USAF, director of strategy, engagement and programs at the US Africa Command, discusses his command’s diplomatic role, its collaboration with the European Union on the continent, lessons learned from military operations and more during a June 13, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Washington. The interview was conducted during the 2018 EU Security & Defense Washington Symposium that was cohosted by the EU Delegation to the United States and the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

Amb. Jorge Domecq, CEO of the European Defence Agency, says Europe needs “an innovative and competitive industrial base,” and discusses his message to the recent Eurosatory land-warfare trade show in Paris, strategic defense investment, maintaining transatlantic defense ties in the face of a potential trade war and much more during a wide-ranging, June 14, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Washington. The interview was conducted during the 2018 EU Security & Defense Washington Symposium that was cohosted by the EU Delegation to the United States and the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

Amb. David O’Sullivan, the European Union’s ambassador to the US, says the EU is committed its security relationship with Washington despite President Donald Trump’s tariffs on European steel and aluminum imports and the threat of a trade war during a June 13, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian in Washington. O’Sullivan stressed the importance of a close transatlantic economic and security partnership, but said that the EU “will retaliate” to the tariffs as it sees fit — citing a case it lodged with the World Trade Organization — promising the introduction of “rebalancing tariffs on an equivalent amount of US exports.” The interview was conducted during the 2018 EU Security & Defense Washington Symposium that was cohosted by the EU Delegation to the United States and the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.

Pedro Serrano, the European Union’s deputy secretary general for the Common Security and Defense Policy (or CSDP), discusses how to keep transatlantic trade disputes from contaminating security relations, the potential unifying effects of a CSDP in the European Union, the Iran nuclear deal’s dissolution, the China-EU relationship and more during a June 13, 2018, interview with Defense & Aerospace Report Editor Vago Muradian at the US Institute of Peace think tank in Washington. The interview was conducted during the 2018 EU Security & Defense Washington Symposium that was cohosted by the EU Delegation to the United States and the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.