Pope Leo decries European military spending as ‘betrayal’ of diplomacy

ROME - Pope Leo on May 14 decried rising European military spending, which grew in 2025 by the highest amount since the end of the Cold War amid pressure from US President Donald Trump, saying it was a betrayal of diplomacy.

Pope Leo, who has drawn Mr Trump’s ire in recent weeks after criticising the Iran war, told university students in Rome that they should not refer to such rearmament as defence spending, adding that the world was being “maimed by wars”.

“Let us not call ‘defence’ a rearmament that increases tensions and insecurity, impoverishes investments in education and health, betrays trust in diplomacy, and enriches elites who care nothing for the common good,” said the pontiff.

Military spending across the continent rose 14 per cent in 2025 to US$864 billion (S$1.1 trillion), according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and rearmament by European NATO members.

Mr Trump has repeatedly chastised European allies to spend more on arms, and signed an executive order in February that would re-prioritise the customer list for US weapons in favour of countries with higher defence spending.

At Mr Trump’s urging, NATO in 2025 supported a new defence spending target of 5 per cent of GDP for its members.

Poppe Leo has been speaking out against the direction of world leadership in recent weeks.

On May 14, he was addressing students at Rome’s Sapienza University, the largest institution of higher learning in Europe.

The pope also warned about the use of artificial intelligence in warfare, citing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran as showing “the inhumane evolution of the relationship between war and new technologies in a spiral of annihilation”.

Pope Leo urged the some 110,000 students at the university not to “close themselves within ideologies and national borders”.

“Together with me and with many brothers and sisters, be artisans of true peace,” the Pope pleaded. REUTERS