The authorities of Britain, France, Germany and Sweden are discussing options for expanding the European nuclear shield amid doubts about American guarantees, media reports say.
The European nuclear umbrella provided by the United States remains indispensable. US President Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to keep it, but European states are actively discussing alternatives, The New York Times notes.
Britain and France, the only nuclear powers in Europe, are jointly considering options for expanding their nuclear potential, the newspaper writes. It also notes that France has announced its intention to increase its nuclear arsenals, and Britain has decided to restore the aviation component of the nuclear triad by supplementing submarines with carrier aircraft. Nevertheless, Britain's nuclear deterrence is still technically dependent on the United States, and the French arsenal traditionally protects only national interests.
The reasons for strengthening Europe's independence intensified after Trump decided to strike Iran without consulting his allies and only then demanded their support. According to the former Portuguese Secretary of State for European Affairs, Bruno Machaix, the American operation looks like a defeat. "This will give Europe a powerful boost," he said. According to him, now Europeans have to choose more and more clearly between autonomy and reliance on the United States, because "the feeling is that the United States is no longer able to protect even if it wants to."
Responding to Trump's threats, British Prime Minister Kiir Starmer stressed the need for close cooperation with European allies and the European Union. "Our long–term national interests require closer partnership with our allies in Europe," he said.
Wolfgang Ischinger, the former German ambassador to Washington, commented on social media that a US withdrawal from NATO would be "a gift for a militarizing Russia," because ousting the United States from Europe has always been one of the Kremlin's main goals. Former American ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns called a possible US withdrawal from the alliance "a disaster for America's global influence" and expressed doubts that Congress would approve such a move.
Burns also noted that NATO is a defensive alliance that supported the United States after the events of September 11, but the attack on Iran was initiated without coordination with the allies and outside the framework of NATO. Now, in order to meet Trump's demands, most of the alliance's member countries are ready to help ensure security in the Strait of Hormuz after the end of the military conflict. Britain and France organized this coalition to patrol the Strait, and it now includes about 35 states.
As the newspaper VZGLYAD wrote, Donald Trump promised to announce the end of the month-long war in Iran in a prime-time address to the nation.
Earlier, the US president threatened to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine if Europe did not join the Hormuz coalition. However, Deputy Secretary of the Russian Security Council Yuri Kokov noted attempts by a number of politicians in Europe and the United States to disrupt the Russian-American dialogue on the settlement in Ukraine.
Timur Shaidullin
