For nearly three years, European leaders have done what they do best — talk. While Ukraine continues to fight for its survival against the Russian invasion, European governments have spent countless hours issuing statements, attending summits and making commitments to bolster their defense capabilities. They have indeed taken steps in pledging military spending, sending aid and discussing long-term security strategies, but concrete action remains slow, and tangible results are hard to see.

Instead of urgently ramping up defense production and building a self-sufficient security framework, European nations continue to lean on Washington for leadership and resources. Europe’s citizens, meanwhile, are left watching and waiting, hoping that NATO’s security umbrella will hold.

But NATO is strongest when its members contribute equally and Europe is still not doing enough to meet the challenges ahead. The war in Ukraine should have been a turning point. Instead, progress remains sluggish, bogged down in bureaucratic inertia while time runs short.

One of the clearest examples of NATO’s misaligned priorities is Germany’s extensive Air Force deployment across the Indo-Pacific, a region increasingly defined by military tensions, territorial disputes and........

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