March 21, 2025 (EIRNS)—Financial Times reported overnight that Europe’s biggest military powers, among them the U.K., France, Germany, and the Nordics, are drawing up plans to take on greater responsibilities for the continent’s defense from the U.S., including a pitch to the Trump administration for a managed transfer over the next five to ten years. The discussions are an attempt to avoid the chaos of a unilateral U.S. withdrawal from NATO, four unnamed European officials involved in the discussions told FT. The proposal would include firm commitments on increasing European defence spending and building up military capabilities, in an effort to convince Trump to agree to a gradual handover that would allow the U.S. to focus more on Asia. The plan is to present it to the U.S. at the NATO summit in The Hague in June.
NATO officials argue that retaining the alliance with less or no U.S. involvement was far simpler than creating a new structure, given the difficulty of recreating or renegotiating its existing military plans for the defense of the continent, its capability targets and rules, its command structure and Article 5.
Not specifically mentioned by FT, but in the background, are reports that Pentagon planners are considering giving up control of the position of Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), a position that has been exclusively held by Americans since Dwight Eisenhower inaugurated it in 1949.
