Von der Leyen: The world’s changed forever … time to deal with it

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday warned that recent political convulsions have permanently reshaped the established world order.

The specter of Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine and U.S. President Donald Trump’s global trade conflict hung over von der Leyen’s cautionary remarks at Keio University in Tokyo, where she was awarded an honorary doctorate.

“We simply cannot accept to be shaken around by the seismic change that we are facing or yet again fall for the fallacy that the storm will pass, that things will go back to before if only a war in one region ends, or a tariff deal is struck, or an election goes one way or the other next time,” the Commission chief said. “Because the geopolitical crosscurrents are simply too strong. And the very foundations of our security and prosperity are simply too shaky.”

“The starting point here is to face the world as it really is — not as we may remember it from generations past,” she added. “I am of the view that the period we are in now — and the way we handle it — will define the rest of this century.”

Von der Leyen’s remarks underscored the extent to which Trump’s transactional approach to global diplomacy combined with Putin’s threatening presence on Europe’s eastern frontier has shaken the political establishment and forced Europe to take more responsibility for its own security.

“Europe is stepping up. In the last weeks and months, we have made proposals to invest in our own defense at levels that would have been unthinkable even a year or two ago,” she said. “We have put forward a plan with investment to match to put industry and innovation, technology and science, at the heart of our economy.”

Von der Leyen was joined in Tokyo by European Council President António Costa and the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas for an EU–Japan summit.

Seb Starcevic contributed to this report.