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

BRUSSELS (AP) – NATO’s chief warned member countries Thursday not to allow a wedge to open between the United States and Europe, as concerns grow about Washington’s commitment to its allies should Donald Triumph return to the office.

Faced with a war in Ukraine that is draining military and financial resources, and with a US support package delayed by infighting in Congress, European leaders and senior officials have warned that Europe must invest more in its militaries and new technologies and increase the armament. production.

“I welcome that 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 chaired a meeting of the organization’s defense department. ministers.

“But that is not an alternative to NATO. Actually, that is a way to strengthen NATO. And we should not follow any path that indicates that we are trying to divide Europe from North America,” he stated.

In recent weeks there has even been talk of Europe developing a nuclear umbrella. France and the United Kingdom – a strong US ally that views NATO as the world’s key 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 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 “supports” its European allies and partners.

Talks about a European nuclear umbrella come, among others, from German members of the European Parliament. But Chancellor OIaf Scholz and other senior 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 started because of comments from a would-be candidate who is in election campaign mode.

On Saturday, the former president TriumphThe front-runner for the GOP nomination this year, said he once warned that he would allow Russia to do whatever it wanted with NATO members who are “delinquent” in dedicating 2% of GDP to defense.

President Joe Biden marked TriumphThe United States’ comments are “dangerous” and “un-American,” building on the former president’s comments that are fueling doubts among America’s partners about his future reliability on the global stage.

Stoltenberg said those comments call into question the credibility of NATO’s collective security commitment: Article 5 of the organization’s founding treaty, which says that an attack against any member country will receive a response from all of them.

“The nuclear debate is really the last thing we need at the moment,” Pistorius told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday. “It’s an escalation in the discussion that we don’t need.”

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck also said that “this great abstract debate will not lead to success.” Speaking to German television Welt, he also expressed skepticism about the idea of ​​making French nuclear weapons part of a European atomic 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 US warheads deployed in Europe using local infrastructure. Several NATO countries provide nuclear-powered aircraft, along with trained personnel, but Washington retains ultimate control over the use of these weapons.

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

Moulson reported from Berlin. Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in France contributed to this report.