EU summit mustn't give impression of seeking US decoupling, Berlin says

This week's European Union summit will discuss ways of strengthening Europe's ability to defend itself alone but try to avoid creating the impression Europe is distancing itself from the U.S., a German government official said on Wednesday.

"We don't want to give the impression we are seeking to decouple ourselves from the U.S.," the official told a briefing ahead of the summit, to be held in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, likely to be Chancellor Olaf Scholz's last.

He added that there was a chance that the summit's conclusions on Ukraine would reflect the views of all but one member, as happened last time, when Hungary refused to sign up to conclusions shared by the 26 other states.