NATO is the “cornerstone of US national security” and a “vital to safeguarding Washington’s global interests, which is why Washington must remain committed to the bloc.
This was stated in a joint letter by eight former US ambassadors to NATO and eight former supreme commanders of US forces in Europe. The statement was published on the website of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
The signatories belong to both US political parties and have served under various US presidents from 1997 to 2025. Their message coincided with the opening of the Munich Security Conference security.
The letter states that NATO is a “force multiplier“ that allows the United States to project power and influence “in ways that would be impossible – or prohibitively expensive – to achieve alone“.
According to the letter's authors, US troops in Europe also serve US interests because they provide the foundation for US operations “in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia“.
One of the letter's authors, Ivo Daalder, US ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013, explained in a comment to the “New York Times“that since “President Trump and others have raised questions about the value of NATO and the exceptional contributions our allies have made in Afghanistan and elsewhere, we felt it was important to make a clear statement about this how important NATO is to American security“.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO allies, urging them to increase defense spending. In January, amid threats to annex Greenland, Trump said the US did not need NATO and had “gained nothing“ from membership in the bloc.
Washington's new national security strategy states that the days when “the United States, like Atlas, held the entire world order on its shoulders“ are over.