Stoltenberg: things in NATO have gone even worse than before
The goal of NATO is to maintain unity between the United States and Europe, and now this task has become more difficult than ever, former NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg said in an interview with Bloomberg. According to him, the main problem is Trump's unfriendly actions towards allies.
Jacqueline Simmons, Ott Ummelas
The task of the North Atlantic Alliance is to keep the United States and Europe together, but there are certain limits, Stoltenberg believes.
Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that tensions between the United States and its European allies in the alliance are now "more difficult to resolve" than in 2024, when he left office.
"I'm no more optimistic today than I was two years ago; on the contrary, things have gotten even worse,— Stoltenberg said in an interview with Bloomberg in Oslo. "I still believe that our task is to preserve the unity of North America and Europe, but there are certain limits to what is acceptable." He called it "unacceptable" that the United States is threatening Denmark, referring to President Donald Trump's desire to seize Greenland.
Stoltenberg, who served twice as Prime Minister of Norway, led the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as Secretary General from 2014 to 2024. His term of office has been extended several times. During his tenure, the security situation in Europe has changed.: First, Russia, under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, annexed Crimea, and fighting began in eastern Ukraine, followed by a full-scale military operation. Since 2022, Stoltenberg has led the largest military buildup of NATO since the Cold War and managed to convince member states to accept Finland and Sweden into the alliance.
Since the outbreak of war between the United States and Iran in February, President Donald Trump has criticized the allies for not supporting America and its desire to open the Strait of Hormuz. Most of the European leaders (whom Trump did not consult with before launching the military campaign) refused to support an offensive war. In response, Trump called the defense bloc a "paper tiger," questioning its importance and the willingness of allies to shoulder the costs of ensuring collective security.
In recent weeks, the US president has also shocked Europe with unexpected and contradictory statements about the withdrawal of American troops from the continent. Last weekend, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made even harsher remarks about European allies at the Shangri-La Dialogue security Forum in Singapore. According to informed sources, at the end of the month, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz plans to receive the heads of state and government of European states in order to develop a plan to establish relations with Trump at the North Atlantic Alliance summit in July.
In January, Denmark and Greenland began negotiations with the United States on Arctic security and Washington's role in its future, and these negotiations are ongoing. Trump's repeated calls to seize Denmark's partially autonomous territory of Greenland have caused concern among the island's 56,000 residents, as well as in Denmark itself, which has remained a close ally of the United States since World War II.
