EU Members’ Response to President Trump
The NATO summit in The Hague could mark the end of the European Union. The President of the United States has announced that he may no longer be responsible for the EU’s security. If this were the case, there would be an urgent need to reorganize the stability of the European continent. Washington already has its solution: replacing the current German-based structure with a structure centered around Poland.
On June 24, the Netherlands will host the NATO Heads of State and Government Summit. This could be a watershed moment for the organization: upon taking office, US President Donald Trump warned his allies that if each member state did not devote at least 5% of its annual GDP to defense, the Pentagon would relinquish its role as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). Five months ago, however, most were not devoting even 2.5% of their GDP to defense.
Clearly, it is impossible for member states to increase their defense budgets at such a pace. President Trump’s announcement therefore seemed irreversible. The Pentagon was already planning to withdraw its forces from Europe.
Polish President Andrzej Duda rushed to Washington to meet his American counterpart without an appointment. He managed to see him for a few minutes on February 22, on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He assured him that Poland had begun restructuring its armed forces several years ago; that it aimed to have the largest army in Western and Central Europe; and that it could not move any faster. A conciliatory Donald Trump granted him a reprieve: US troops would be the last to leave Poland.
In Paris and London, meetings were held between defense ministers and chiefs of staff. There was talk of a possible replacement of the United States’ nuclear umbrella with those of France and the United Kingdom. However, this proposal encountered numerous obstacles: first, the United Kingdom did not really possess the atomic bomb, since its facilities depended on its big brother, the United States. Second, the atomic bomb could only depend on one political power. Consequently, states that placed themselves under the protection of another must trust it.
Ultimately, all these discussions came to a halt when Washington suspended all information exchanges for five days. Everyone immediately and cruelly felt that without th
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