BRUSSELS – European allies at NATO on Thursday brushed aside concerns that the United States has stepped back from its leadership role of the world’s biggest security organization, leaving them and Canada to do the lion's share of defending Europe.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not attend Thursday’s gathering of defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels. His no-show came after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio skipped the last meeting of NATO foreign ministers in December.
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It’s rare for members of a U.S. administration to miss a meeting of the organization’s top decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, let alone two in a row. U.S. Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby was sent in Hegseth’s place.
“Sadly for him, he is missing a good party,” Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir told reporters. “Of course, it’s always better that the ministers attend here, but I would not describe it as a bad signal.”
“I’m not disappointed,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “Each of us has a full agenda. And one time the American defense minister is here, and one time not, so it's his decision and his duties he has to fulfill.”
How times have changed
When asked what NATO’s purpose was in its infancy in 1949, NATO’s first secretary-general, the British general and diplomat Lord Hastings Ismay, was reputed to have replied: “To keep the Americans in, the Russians out and the Germans down.”
Nowadays, Germany is stepping up. After Russia invaded Ukraine four years ago, it vowed to spend 100 billion euros ($118 billion) to modernize its armed forces in coming years.
A big part of NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s job is to keep the Americans in.
“They have to take care of the whole world. This is the United States,” Rutte told reporters before chairing the meeting. “I totally accept it, agree with it.”
“They have always consistently pleaded for Europe doing more, Canada doing more, taking more care of the defense of NATO territory, of course in conjunction with the United States,” he said.
That means more European spending on conventional weapons and defense, while the U.S. guarantees NATO's nuclear deterrent.
But doubts linger, and unexpected moves by the Trump administration cannot be ruled out. Allies still wonder whether more U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Europe.
“What for me is the most important is the no-surprise policy that has been agreed between the NATO secretary-general and the U.S.,” Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said.
Stepping back
Publicly at least, the Trump administration is doing much less at NATO. A year ago, Hegseth warned that America’s security priorities lie elsewhere and that Europe would have to look after itself, and Ukraine in its battle against Russia's full-scale invasion.
Supplies of U.S. guns and money that were sent to Ukraine by the administration of former U.S. President Joe Biden have dried up under Trump. European allies and Canada are obliged to buy weapons from the United States to donate now.
Western backers of Ukraine also met at NATO on Thursday to drum up more military support. A scheme proudly championed by the Pentagon under Biden, the Ukraine Defense Contact Group is now chaired by the U.K. and Germany.
U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey announced that Britain would provide “an extra half a billion pounds ($682 million) in urgent air defense to Ukraine." Sweden intends to fund the purchase of more American weapons. The Netherlands is sending flight simulators to help Ukrainian fighter pilots train to fly F-16 jets.
In a statement, meanwhile, 16 former U.S. ambassadors and top military officers who served at NATO issued a joint defense of the organization.
“If the United States were to withdraw from NATO, or diminish its utility by eroding trust among allies, the immediate result would not be a ‘peace dividend,’” they said. Instead, it would result in higher costs, greater risks and a loss of U.S. influence and legitimacy.
In a speech to the ministers, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense Colby laid out a vision of a new alliance – a “NATO 3.0” – that he said would be more “balanced, credible and rooted in shared strength and realism.”
“The times are changing, and we must adapt,” he said.
While the United States defends its territory, “interests in our hemisphere” and the Indo-Pacific, he said, “it follows that Europe should field the preponderance of the forces required to deter and, if necessary, defeat conventional aggression in Europe.”
Arctic Sentry
The one “deliverable” from Thursday’s meeting was the announcement that NATO would launch Arctic Sentry, its response to U.S. security concerns in the high north, and an attempt to dissuade Trump from trying to seize Greenland.
It’s ostensibly aimed at countering Russian and Chinese activities or influence in the Arctic region.
But Arctic Sentry is essentially a rebranding exercise. National drills already underway in the region, like those run by Denmark and Norway, will be brought under the NATO umbrella and overseen by the organization’s military chief.
It is not a long-term NATO operation or mission.
Denmark, France and Germany will take part in the “military activities” happening under Arctic Sentry, but they have not said in what way. Finland and Sweden are likely to get involved. Belgium is considering what role it might play.
It remains unclear what role, if any, the United States will take.
“It can’t just be more from the United States,” U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said ahead of Thursday’s meeting. “We need capable allies that are ready and strong, that can bring assets to all of these areas of our collective security.”
Trump’s renewed threats last month to annex Greenland — a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark — have deeply shaken the rest of the alliance. NATO’s primary role is to defend the territory of its 32 member states, not to undermine it.
European allies and Canada hope that Arctic Sentry and ongoing talks between the Trump administration, Denmark and Greenland will allow NATO to move on from the dispute and focus on Europe’s real security priority, Russia’s war on Ukraine.