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NATO foreign affairs ministers are meeting in Sweden for a two-day summit amid uncertain times for the alliance.
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Top of ministers’ minds is an announcement by the Trump administration that it will incrementally withdraw the US from European security, meaning its support will not be guaranteed even in times of war.
The attendees will also discuss how the alliance can ramp up its defence production as the war in Iran drains its stockpile of advanced US-made weapons.
The exact details of where US support and capabilities will be withdrawn is due to be announced on Friday, but sources at NATO have confirmed the plan “does change the US contribution to NATO in the event of crisis or conflict.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte played down the US announcement, reiterating the fact the Trump administration has long signalled it was pulling away from European security architecture as part of the “America First” doctrine.
“This has been expected,” he said ahead of the meeting at a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday. “We know that adjustments will take place, the US has to pivot toward, for example, Asia.”
But “this will take place over time, in a structured way,” he added, insisting “the US will stay involved in Europe”.
This adjustment is being worked out within the NATO force model – the framework within the alliance that manages national forces as well as overall deterrence and defence needs.
However, it comes just weeks after US President Donald Trump abruptly announced that he was pulling 5,000 soldiers from Germany following a feud with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz over the US-Israeli war with Iran.
Trump took offence when Merz criticised the war as ill-conceived and said White House negotiators were being “humiliated” by the regime in Tehran.
However, instead of cutting 5,000 troops from Germany, Trump in fact cancelled the deployment of 4,000 soldiers already en route to Poland, taking Warsaw by surprise.
Ramping up production
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be joining his counterparts in Sweden, and Euronews understands he will emphasise the drastic need for greater defence industrial output among all allies.
To keep the Ukrainian armed forces supplied for the fight against Russia, NATO allies purchase complex weapons from the US through the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List.
With the US expending vast quantities of its stockpiles of critical ammunition and weaponry such as Patriot air defence systems in its war in Iran, Euronews understands that if the attrition rate continues at its current pace, the knock-on effect for Europe will be a shortage of valuable munitions deliveries for the Ukrainian army.
“The question is no longer whether we need to do more”, Rutte told journalist on the need for more weapons production. “The question is how quickly allies can turn commitments into capabilities.”
This week’s ministerial meeting is a staging post in the lead-up to the annual NATO leaders’ summit to be held in Ankara in July.
Ministers meeting in Sweden will deliberate whether to extend a formal invite to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was present for part of last year’s summit at the Hague at the invitation of the King of the Netherlands.
The year before at the summit in Washington DC, he was given a full invite under the Biden administration, which was far more supportive of Ukraine than the second Trump administration, which has all but thwarted Ukraine’s NATO membership ambitions.
