Europe’s biggest military powers are drawing up plans to take on greater responsibilities for the continent’s defence from the United States, including a pitch to the administration of President Donald Trump, for a managed transfer over the next five to 10 years, according to a new report,
AL Jazeera reports.
The United Kingdom, France, Germany and the Nordic countries are among those engaged in the informal but structured discussions that would reshape the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) security bloc, The Financial Times newspaper reported on Thursday, citing four European officials involved.
The news also comes as Bloomberg News reported on Friday that NATO will ask Europe and Canada to boost its weapons and equipment stockpiles by 30 percent, amid its political infighting with the US and Trump’s repeated threats to withdraw from the bloc.
According to the FT report, the talks are an attempt to avoid possible chaos should the US unilaterally declare its withdrawal from the transatlantic security alliance that has protected Europe for the past 80 years.
The Europeans reportedly want to present the plan to the US ahead of NATO’s annual leaders’ summit in The Hague in June.
