BRUSSELS — The head of NATO warned member states on Thursday against driving a wedge between the United States and Europe, as concerns grow about Washington’s commitment to its allies if Donald Trump returns to office.
Faced with a war in Ukraine that is draining military and financial resources, and with a US aid package held up by infighting in Congress, European leaders and senior officials have warned that Europe must invest more in its militaries and new technologies and weapons step up. production.
“I am happy that the European allies are investing more in defense, and NATO has been calling for that for many, many years,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, where he was addressing a meeting of chaired the organization’s defense arm. ministers.
“But that is no alternative to NATO. That is actually a way to strengthen NATO. And we should not follow any path that suggests we are trying to separate Europe from North America,” he said.
There has even been talk in recent weeks about developing a nuclear umbrella in Europe. France and Britain – a close US ally that considers NATO the world’s most important security organization – are Europe’s only nuclear powers.
France has traditionally seen itself as a counterbalance to American influence in NATO. It does not participate in NATO’s nuclear planning group.
“NATO has a nuclear deterrent, and it has worked for decades,” Stoltenberg said. “We shouldn’t do anything to undermine that. That will only create more uncertainty and more room for miscalculations and misunderstandings.”
President Emmanuel Macron insists that France must maintain its independence when it comes to the possible use of nuclear weapons. However, he said in December that France has a “very special responsibility” as a nuclear power in Europe and “stands by” its allies and European partners.
Discussions included a European nuclear umbrella of 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 Defense Minister Boris Pistorius dismissed the debate over European nuclear weapons, saying it is a “complex discussion” that should not be entered into because of comments from an aspiring candidate who is in election campaign mode.
On Saturday, former President Trump, the frontrunner for this year’s Republican Party nomination, said he once warned that he would allow Russia to do whatever it wants to NATO members who are “delinquent” in spending 2% of GDP on defense.
President Joe Biden branded Trump’s comments as “dangerous” and “un-American,” attacking the former president’s comments as fueling doubts among U.S. partners about his future reliability on the world stage.
Stoltenberg said these comments call into question the credibility of NATO’s collective security obligation – Article 5 of the organization’s founding treaty, which states that an attack on any member state will be met with a response from all member states.
“The nuclear debate is really the last thing we need right now,” Pistorius told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. “It is an escalation in the discussion that we do not need.”
German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck also said that “this great abstract debate will not lead to success.” In a speech to Germany’s Welt television, he also expressed skepticism about the idea of making French nuclear weapons part of a European nuclear weapons strategy.
“The last thing the French want is European co-management of their army,” he said.
NATO’s nuclear deterrent depends in part on U.S. nuclear warheads deployed in Europe using local infrastructure. A number of NATO countries provide aircraft for use in a nuclear role, along with trained personnel, but Washington retains ultimate control over the use of these weapons.
NATO conducts a major nuclear exercise every year to ensure its preparedness and to deter any potential aggressor, especially Russia.
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Moulson reported from Berlin. Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet from France contributed to this report.