EUROPEAN and Canadian NATO allies sought to reassure one another on Thursday that the United States remains committed to the trans\u2011Atlantic alliance, despite the absence of senior U.S. officials from key meetings and worries that Washington may be shifting its global security focus.<\/p>\n
AP reported on Friday that U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not attend the gathering of defence ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, a rare no\u2011show at the organisation\u2019s highest decision\u2011making forum.<\/p>\n
He was represented instead by U.S. Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby. The absence followed a similar skip by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the December meeting of NATO foreign ministers.<\/p>\n
Iceland\u2019s Foreign Minister \u00deorger\u00f0ur Katr\u00edn Gunnarsd\u00f3ttir acknowledged the unusual absence, saying, \u201cSadly for him, he is missing a good party. Of course, it\u2019s always better that the ministers attend here, but I would not describe it as a bad signal.\u201d<\/p>\n
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius echoed the sentiment, noting that schedules vary: \u201cEach of us has a full agenda. And one time the American defence minister is here, and one time not, so it\u2019s his decision and his duties he has to fulfil.\u201d<\/p>\n
For decades NATO has relied on U.S. leadership as a central pillar of collective defence. The alliance\u2019s first secretary\u2011general after its founding in 1949 reportedly described NATO\u2019s purpose as \u201cTo keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today Germany is assuming a more significant role itself. Since Russia\u2019s full\u2011scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, Berlin has pledged to invest 100\u202fbillion euros to modernise its armed forces.<\/p>\n
NATO Secretary\u2011General Mark Rutte emphasised the enduring importance of U.S. engagement, recognising Washington\u2019s global security burdens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to take care of the whole world. This is the United States. I totally accept it, agree with it,\u201d he said before chairing the meeting.<\/p>\n
Allies nonetheless acknowledged that the United States has increasingly encouraged Europe and Canada to take on greater responsibility for their own conventional defence, while the U.S. continues to underwrite NATO\u2019s nuclear deterrent.<\/p>\n
Yet doubts remain about the stability of Washington\u2019s commitments, particularly amid unpredictable moves by the Trump administration and concerns about potential further reductions of U.S. troops stationed in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat for me is the most important is the no\u2011surprise policy that has been agreed between the NATO secretary\u2011general and the U.S.,\u201d Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans said, underscoring allies\u2019 desire for clear communication.<\/p>\n
Publicly at least, Washington\u2019s NATO role has been in transition. Last year Mr Hegseth suggested that America\u2019s security priorities lie elsewhere and that Europe must increasingly look after its own defence, including Ukraine\u2019s defence against Russian aggression.<\/p>\n
Under the Trump administration, U.S. supplies of arms and funding to Ukraine that flowed under the Biden presidency have largely dried up, obliging European allies and Canada to procure U.S. weaponry for donation.<\/p>\n
Western supporters of Ukraine met in Brussels on Thursday to rally fresh military assistance. The Ukraine Defence Contact Group, long championed by the Pentagon, is now co\u2011chaired by the United Kingdom and Germany.<\/p>\n
The U.K. Defence Secretary John Healey announced an additional \u00a3500\u202fmillion in urgent air defence aid for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Sweden said it would fund more purchases of U.S. weapons, and the Netherlands pledged flight simulators to train Ukrainian pilots on F\u201116 fighters.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, 16 former U.S. ambassadors and senior military officers who served at NATO issued a statement defending the alliance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the United States were to withdraw from NATO, or diminish its utility by eroding trust among allies, the immediate result would not be a \u2018peace dividend,\u2019\u201d they warned. Instead, they said it would bring higher costs, greater risks and a loss of U.S. influence and legitimacy.<\/p>\n
Addressing the defence ministers, Mr Colby outlined a vision for what he called \u201cNATO 3.0,\u201d an alliance rebalanced for today\u2019s security landscape, \u201cbalanced, credible and rooted in shared strength and realism.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that while the United States protects its homeland, \u201cinterests in our hemisphere\u201d and the Indo\u2011Pacific, it follows that \u201cEurope should field the preponderance of the forces required to deter, and, if necessary, defeat conventional aggression in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
The one concrete outcome from Thursday\u2019s meeting was the launch of \u201cArctic Sentry,\u201d a NATO framework aimed at coordinating defence activities in the High North in response to perceived Russian and Chinese interests.<\/p>\n
Rather than a new long\u2011term NATO mission, the initiative will bring existing national exercises under NATO\u2019s umbrella, overseen by its military leadership.<\/p>\n
Denmark, France and Germany are participating, with Finland, Sweden and possibly Belgium expected to be involved. The United States has not yet outlined its role.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the meeting, U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker stressed that burden\u2011sharing was essential.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can\u2019t just be more from the United States,\u201d he said. \u201cWe need capable allies that are ready and strong, that can bring assets to all of these areas of our collective security.\u201d<\/p>\n
Relations within the alliance have recently been tested by other unexpected developments, including Trump\u2019s renewed suggestions last month of annexing Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.<\/p>\n
The proposal startled partners because NATO\u2019s core mission is to defend member territory, not to unsettle it.<\/p>\n
European allies and Canada are now hoping that Arctic Sentry and continued dialogue between the Trump administration, Denmark and Greenland will help the alliance move past those tensions and refocus on what they see as NATO\u2019s most pressing security priority: deterring Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine. – February 13, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EUROPEAN and Canadian NATO allies sought to reassure one another on Thursday that the United States remains committed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[7733,211,210,9225,10519,190,2375,74,8936,5564,10518,10520,2653,76],"class_list":["post-13764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-arctic-sentry","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-defence-spending","tag-elbridge-colby","tag-germany","tag-marco-rubio","tag-nato","tag-pete-hegseth","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-trans-atlantic-alliance","tag-u-k","tag-ukraine-support","tag-united-states"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}