Nato chief calls for ‘conversation’ on usefulness of Irish neutrality in changing world – The Irish Times

There should be a “conversation” about the future of Irish neutrality and its usefulness in a changing world, Nato’s military commander has said.

US air force general Alexus Grynkewich, who serves as both the supreme allied commander of Nato and the senior US general in Europe, made the comments during a visit to Ireland where he met political and military leaders.

Speaking in the US embassy as a small but vocal group of pro-Palestinian protests gathered outside, Grynkewich outlined various threats facing Europe including from drones and shadow fleet vessels. However, he played down the likelihood of a direct military attack on Nato by Russia.

In an interview with The Irish Times, the general said Ireland “has every right to make sovereign decisions about how they want to invest and take care of things”.

However, he believes there is “room in the Irish body politic” to have a conversation about the future position on neutrality.

“What are the benefits of this neutrality? And is it fit for purpose for the world that we’re entering into, or not? Ultimately, that’s an Irish decision, and not something that I would weigh in on. But I do think that it’s an important conversation to be had among the Irish people.”

Last month, the US ambassador to Nato, Matthew Whitaker, claimed Ireland enjoys all the benefits of membership of the alliance while incurring none of the downsides.

Ireland is not a member of Nato but collaborates with the alliance in some areas and contributes troops to the Nato-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

Grynkewich declined to weigh in on accusations that Ireland is a freeloader when it comes to defence. “I always try not to get in the midst of political-level disagreements, whether it’s among allies or between allies and our partners,” the general said.

He identified the Russian shadow fleet, a group of hundreds of vessels used to transport sanctioned oil, as posing a threat, including to the many subsea cables off the Irish coast. These cables are vital both for commerce and civilian use as well as for military communications, he said.

“They’re essential to my communications back to America. They’re essential for Nato communications.”

The presence of the shadow fleet in Ireland’s economic waters means “those cables are something that’s on [Russia’s] mind, and they see there could be a soft underbelly that they could go after,” said Grynkewich.

He called for greater intelligence sharing and interoperability between the US and Ireland in this area “so we can be robust in our understanding of what the shadow fleet might be up to”.

An increase in suspected drone activity by Russia in Europe is another cause for concern, he said.

This includes the discovery of an explosive drone beside a Ukrainian transport aircraft in Leipzig, Germany last week.

However, asked about an incident over Dublin Bay last December where five drones were spotted operating near the flight path of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s aircraft, the general said Nato had no specific intelligence.

“Drones can often be nefarious actors, but they can equally often be just some hobbyists or maybe just a criminal actor.

“I don’t have any attribution to that action, but I will tell you that we do know that some of the drone activity we’ve seen across the broader European continent has certainly been tied back to actors that we suspect have ties to the Russians.

“So, it’s entirely plausible, but there’s no smoking gun.”

The general played down tensions within Nato caused by US president Donald Trump’s criticism of European countries who refused to lend assistance in the US war with Iran. Trump has also caused division by repeatedly calling for Greenland, a Danish territory, to become part of the US.

“If I was Vladimir Putin, I’d pay more attention to the military-to-military relationships and other relationships that we have. There will always be a level of political rhetoric that happens, for better or worse.”

Grynkewich met Minister for State for Defence Thomas Byrne and Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieut Gen Rossa Mulcahy during his visit and inspected a Defence Forces barracks.