NATO chief warns against dividing US and Europe or weakening their joint nuclear deterrent

NATO’s chief warned member states on Thursday against allowing a wedge to be created between the United States and Europe, as concerns grow over Washington’s commitment to its allies if Donald Trump returns to office.

With the war in Ukraine draining military and financial resources, and infighting in Congress holding up a US aid package, European leaders and senior officials have warned that Europe must invest more in its militaries and new technologies. And weapons should be increased. Production.

“I welcome that European allies are investing more in defence, and NATO has asked for this for many years,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters. Minister.

“But this is not an alternative to NATO. This is actually a way to strengthen NATO. And we must not take a course that suggests we are trying to divide Europe from North America,” he said.

In recent weeks, there has also been talk of Europe developing a nuclear umbrella. France and the United Kingdom – a staunch US ally that views NATO as the world’s premier security organization – are Europe’s only nuclear powers.

France has traditionally seen itself as a counterweight to American influence in NATO. It does not participate in NATO’s nuclear planning group.

“NATO has a nuclear deterrent and it has been working for decades,” Stoltenberg said. “We must not do anything to weaken it. “This 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 potential use of nuclear weapons. However, he said in December that France has a “very special responsibility” as a nuclear power in Europe and that it “stands with” its allies and European partners.

Calls for a European nuclear umbrella have also come from, among others, German members of the European Parliament. But Chancellor Oif Scholz and other top security policy officials believe there is no alternative to NATO’s nuclear umbrella.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has dismissed the debate about European nuclear weapons, saying it is a “complicated discussion” that should not be started because of comments by an ambitious candidate in election campaign mode.

On Saturday, former President Trump, who is the frontrunner for the Republican Party nomination this year, said he once warned that he would allow Russia to do whatever it wants with NATO members, who provide 2% of GDP for defense. are “criminals” in devoting themselves to.

President Joe Biden slammed Trump’s comments as “dangerous” and “un-American”, seizing on the former president’s comments as they fueled skepticism among US partners about their future dependence on the global stage.

Stoltenberg said the comments raise questions about the credibility of NATO’s collective security commitment – ​​Article 5 of the organization’s founding treaty, which says an attack on any member state will be met with a response from all of them.

“The nuclear debate is really the last thing we need right now,” Pistorius told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. “This is an increase in discussion that we don’t need.”

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habach also said that “this big abstract debate will not lead to success.” Speaking 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 military,” he said.

NATO’s nuclear deterrence depends in part on US weapons deployed in Europe using local infrastructure. Many NATO countries contribute aircraft with trained personnel for use in the nuclear role, but Washington retains ultimate control over the use of these weapons.

NATO holds a major nuclear exercise every year to ensure its readiness and to act as a deterrent to any potential aggressor, primarily Russia.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – The Associated Press)