In Europe, NATO is believed to be paralyzed and already falling apart. European leaders are privately discussing how to respond to threats by US President Donald Trump to leave the alliance, Politico reports, citing unnamed European officials.
“It is absolutely clear that NATO is already falling apart. We cannot wait for the Alliance to die completely“, an EU official told the newspaper, adding that Europe urgently needs to strengthen its defenses.
Another European diplomat, speaking to the publication, expressed the opinion that “NATO is paralyzed“ and divided.
“In private conversations, at dinners and on the sidelines of meetings in Brussels and elsewhere, European leaders and officials have been discussing how to deal with the US president’s threats to leave NATO and what they will do if he does. Now they share a grim view that Trump’s increasingly vicious attacks on Britain, Spain, France and other countries confirm a fundamental rift in the transatlantic alliance,“ the article says.
As Politico notes, officials privately acknowledge that US criticism “is inevitably weakening NATO“ because the alliance is founded on the idea that its charter requires member states to be ready to defend any member that is attacked. “But Trump has so often questioned this idea that he has made doubting NATO an official policy“.
According to the newspaper, Europeans have yet to reach a consensus on how to restore NATO's credibility or what to replace it with in a worst-case scenario. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, according to the newspaper, has also irritated allies by deliberately refusing to criticize Washington and claiming that the alliance is trouble-free.
Meanwhile, the White House has reportedly not discussed leaving NATO, despite Trump's public stance.
The US president has previously expressed doubts about NATO's ability to provide real assistance to the United States, accusing the alliance of “bad attitude“ and ineffectiveness in the event of a global threat. In an interview with the Telegraph, he said he was seriously considering leaving NATO after the alliance's refusal to assist in the operation against Iran.
Previously, the American leader called the North Atlantic Alliance a "paper tiger" without the participation of the United States and sharply criticized its allies for their refusal to support the United States in the confrontation with Iran and the operations to unblock the Strait of Hormuz.