"PRESIDENT TRUMP will demand Brussels abandons plans for an EU Army if it wants the US is to continue its support for Nato. Senior British officers serving at the Pentagon have been briefed that one of the new administration’s top priorities will be to "sweep away" plans championed by Germany and France." ”We have been told quite clearly that, in an environment in which the political temperature in Eastern Europe is high and fiscal pressure on budgets is increasing, there can only be one joint force and that is Nato,” he said.
“Senior US officers directing future strategy want to see more delivery from European nations. There is grave concern about the intent and growing talk of an EU Army, which appears to draw resources away from the Alliance.”
Burden sharing by Europe is expected feature highly during Theresa May’s visit with Trump next month, though Britain is one of only five members meeting spending targets.
Despite comments by President Trump calling Nato “obsolete”, new US defence secretary Gen James Mattis affirmed America’s commitment to the Alliance – and reinforced concerns against Russia.
“We have a long list of times we’ve tried to engage positively with Russia. We have a relatively short list of successes in that regard,” he told Congress on Friday.
While European defence spending is the primary concern, insiders warned that Trump would also be gauging Europe’s “boots on the ground” commitments.
“President Trump is a numbers man. Defence spending is one thing, but when he meets with Nato chiefs in Brussels later this year, he will do the math: the US is deploying almost six [brigades] in Europe. How does this stack with Europe’s commitment? The US and Germany are playing their part but what about the rest?”, said another source close to the administration.
Last night Ian Brzezinski, resident senior fellow with the Washington DC-based Atlantic Council think tank, said: “Where the EU is most effective is in leveraging its $17 trillion economic weight and in fostering economic development and democratic reform.
“When it develops military command structures and other military capacities it is institutionalizing duplications that serve no benefit.
“Nato is unsurpassed when it comes to so-called putting lead on a target and interoperability. The power of Nato-EU collaboration is found in their complimentarity, not redundancy.
He added: “With the appointment of Gen Mattis, a big supporter of Nato, as defence secretary, and the current Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen Curtis Scaparrotti, President Trump has a hammer and anvil with which to accelerate Nato’s transformation. “