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

NATO leaders warned members on Thursday not to allow sowing discord between the United States and Europe as concerns grow about Washington’s commitment to its allies after Donald Trump returns to office.

Faced with a war in Ukraine that has drained military and financial resources and a U.S. support package stymied by infighting in Congress, European leaders and senior officials have warned that Europe must invest more in its military and new technologies and increase weapons and equipment production. .

“I welcome the increased investment in defense by European allies, which NATO has been calling for for many years,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters. Ministers.

“But this is not a replacement for NATO. This is actually a way to strengthen NATO. We should not go down any path that shows that we are trying to separate Europe from North America,” he said.

There has even been talk in recent weeks of developing a nuclear umbrella for Europe. France and Britain – staunch allies of the United States that consider NATO the world’s key security organization – are Europe’s only nuclear powers.

France has traditionally seen itself as a counterweight to U.S. influence in NATO. It does not participate in the NATO nuclear planning group.

“NATO has a nuclear deterrent and it has been effective for decades,” Stoltenberg said. “We should not do anything to undermine that. This will only create more uncertainty and bring More room for misjudgment and misunderstanding.”

French President Emmanuel Macron insists that France must maintain its independence over the possible use of nuclear weapons. However, he said in December that France had a “very special responsibility” as a European nuclear power and “supported” its allies and European partners.

German members of the European Parliament, among others, are talking about a European nuclear umbrella. But Chancellor Scholz and other senior security policy officials see no alternative to NATO’s nuclear umbrella.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius dismissed the debate over Europe’s nuclear weapons, saying it was a “complex discussion” that should not be opened up over the words of an aspiring candidate running for office.

Former President Trump, the front-runner for this year’s Republican nomination, said on Saturday that he had warned that he would allow Russia to do whatever it wanted to NATO members that “arrears” 2 percent of their GDP for defense.

President Joe Biden called Trump’s comments “dangerous” and “un-American,” using the former president’s rhetoric to fuel doubts among U.S. partners about his future reliability on the global stage.

Stoltenberg said the remarks called into question the credibility of NATO’s collective security commitments – Article 5 of the organization’s founding treaty stipulates that an attack on any member state will be responded to by all member states.

“The nuclear debate is really the last thing we need right now,” Pistorius told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. “We don’t need this discussion to escalate.”

German Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck also said, “This big abstract debate will not be successful.” He also expressed doubts about the idea of ​​including French nuclear weapons as part of the European atomic weapons strategy in an interview with German television.

“The last thing the French want is for Europeans to co-manage their military,” he said.

NATO’s nuclear deterrent relies in part on U.S. warheads deployed in Europe using local infrastructure. Many NATO countries provide aircraft and trained personnel for nuclear use, but Washington retains ultimate control over the use of these weapons.

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

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from Yonhap News Agency-The Associated Press)