Exclusive | Waltz says Ukraine’s defense must be ‘European-led,’ calls out ‘woefully inadequate’ allies over preparedness

WASHINGTON — National security adviser Mike Waltz told The Post Tuesday the US can’t afford to “subsidize” its NATO allies anymore — and added that the defense of Ukraine “must be European-led.”

In a wide-ranging interview to mark President Trump’s first 100 days in office, Waltz affirmed that the administration would back Europe militarily and diplomatically — but would be “demanding at every level.”

“Case in point, look at the issue with the Houthis [in Yemen],” he said. “The vast majority of that shipping [through the Red Sea] goes to Europe, and when you have a situation where they haven’t invested in their navies to be able to handle — or at least assist us in a much greater way — then at some point this is going to affect their way of life, their trade, their commerce, their ability to keep their economies going.”

“We’ve made it clear that assistance to Ukraine going forward in the future must be European-led,” the national security adviser added. “And that is just a fundamental outcome of these negotiations.”

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov set diplomatic efforts back by demanding a fully “demilitarized” Ukraine and refused to offer any territory occupied by Vladimir Putin’s war machine back to Kyiv.

Special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow April 25 for talks which Trump said at the time were “going smoothly” — after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected a new proposed peace agreement that demanded the recognition of the Crimean peninsula as Russian territory.

Waltz has echoed President Trump’s calls that NATO members hike their defense budgets to at least 5% of GDP, pointing out that few were willing to meet a “bare minimum” of 2% in the Republican’s first administration.

“We have to take a step back and remember that it was 11 years ago that NATO — as a group, all of its members — committed to 2%. That was a bare minimum in 2014,” he said

“What also happened in 2014? The first invasion of Ukraine, the taking of Crimea,” he went on.

“That should have been a wake up call to get everybody to 100% [of the] bare minimum.”

The national security adviser added that it was “really astounding that now, with the largest land war in Europe since World War II” NATO nations are still lagging behind.

Of the 32 member countries — including the US and Canada — just 2.71% of GDP on average was going toward their collective security last year, according to the bloc’s own statistics.

In February, officials in Poland, Latvia, Romania, Denmark and the UK said they would put between 3% and 5% of their GDPs toward defense in the coming years.

Sweden, Estonia and the Czech Republic followed suit the next month, pledging to reach the same range between 2026 and 2030.

“We still have a good ways to go, and we’re going to continue to demand that our allies pay their … fair share, that they share this burden,” Waltz declared.

“The United States, with $33 trillion in debt, can literally can no longer afford to subsidize European security — and we have to make the distinction between our Eastern European allies like Poland, like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and others.”

Waltz singled out the prime ministers of Norway and Finland, who he said had “stepped up” their burden-sharing, while “others like Spain and Canada, and even our good friends in Italy … are just woefully insufficient.”

“For Canada to say, ‘We’ll hit the minimum 10 years from now,’ which is 10 years after they made that first commitment — that’s why you see the president talking about 5%,” he said.

“Canada should have bases on its northern slope,” he explained. “They should have icebreakers up in the Arctic with new oil and gas, with critical minerals, with the Chinese and the Russians pushing up into that area, new shipping lanes.”

Amid the Ukraine-Russia war, Witkoff and Waltz have also been engaged in discussions to terminate Iran’s nuclear program — with United Nations inspectors discovering months ago that Tehran’s uranium enrichment was nearing weapons-grade.

Trump has maintained the US won’t be “dragged in” to any war with the Iranian regime, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prods the administration toward military action.

The American military has also pummeled Iran-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen, with more than 1,000 airstrikes in Trump’s first 100 days and the elimination of 74 other terror leaders at large.

“We’re pounding them,” Waltz described the Yemen operations. “We’re working to denuclearize Iran. We’re opening the waterways in the Red Sea. We’re looking to resolve the Gaza conflict, but most importantly, I think, is that we’re securing our own border.”

“From the Arctic to our border, the Panama Canal — the first Latin American country to reject [China’s] Belt and Road [economic initiative] in decades — and all the way down to our good friend [President Javier] Milei in Argentina,” he went on. “That has been a tremendous first step.”

With Trump’s first trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates expected in May, Waltz is hopeful that more of the conflicts will wind down — but remains clear-eyed about the threat from Iran with respect to possible military strikes on nuclear sites.

“All options are on the table,” he said. “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and the president has been there repeatedly and he is absolutely serious about it.”