Brussels, Feb 15: The head of NATO warned member countries on Thursday against allowing a wedge to be driven between the United States and Europe, as concern grows about Washington’s commitment to its allies should Donald Trump return to office.
Faced with a war in Ukraine that is draining military and financial resources, and with a US package of support held up by infighting in Congress, European leaders and senior officials have warned that Europe must invest more in its armies and new technologies and ramp up weapons production.
“I welcome that the European allies are investing more in defence, and NATO has called for that for many, many years,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters, where he was chairing a meeting of the organisation’s defence ministers.
“But that’s not an alternative to NATO. That is actually a way to strength NATO. And we should not pursue any path that indicates that we are trying to divide Europe from North America,” he said.
Talk has even surfaced in recent weeks about Europe developing a nuclear umbrella. France and the United Kingdom – a staunch US ally that sees NATO as the world’s key security organisation – are Europe’s only nuclear powers.
France has traditionally seen itself as a counterweight to US influence in NATO. It does not participate in NATO’s nuclear planning group.
“NATO has a nuclear deterrent, and this has worked for decades,” Stoltenberg said. “We should not do anything to undermine that. That will only create more uncertainty and more room for miscalculation and misunderstanding.” President Emmanuel Macron insists that France must maintain its independence when it comes to the possible use of nuclear weapons. He said in December, though, that France has a “very special responsibility” as a nuclear power in Europe and “stands by” its allies and European partners.
Talk of a European nuclear umbrella has come from, among others, German members of the European Parliament. But Chancellor OIaf Scholz and other top security policy officials believe there is no alternative to NATO’s nuclear umbrella.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius dismissed the debate about European nuclear weapons, saying that it’s a “complex discussion” that shouldn’t be embarked on because of remarks from an aspiring candidate who’s in election campaign mode.
On Saturday, former President Trump, the front-runner for the Republican Party’s nomination this year, said he once warned that he would allow Russia to do whatever it wants to NATO members that are “delinquent” in devoting 2 per cent of GDP to defence.
President Joe Biden branded Trump’s remarks “dangerous” and “un-American,” seizing on the former president’s comments as they fuel doubt among US partners about its future dependability on the global stage. (AP)
