Trump's new pressure on European allies: prizes and punishments according to military spending

BrusselsUnited States pressure on NATO allies to spend more on defense and do it buying American weapons doesn't stop. Washington's ambassador to the Atlantic Alliance, Matthew Whitaker, has warned that Donald Trump's administration will carry out a new strategy to make its transatlantic partners believe: "It will bring benefits" to governments that spend more on defense and punish those that allocate fewer resources to it.

The American diplomat did not want to go into much detail about the new threat, but pointed out that some of the benefits could be that allies who spend more on defense "have easier access to American leaders." Or that they have "priority" when acquiring and contracting military equipment from the US. "There are many ways to materialize it. [...] We have already spoken at the Pentagon about what these incentives could be," Whitaker indicated this Wednesday at a press conference before next week's NATO meeting in Ankara. He did not clarify, however, what the penalties will consist of, although he assured that they are already working on it.

The US ambassador has also called on European allies that he considers to be more committed to NATO's defense, such as Germany, Poland or Finland, to pressure countries that they are at a lower level, like Spain. "A little pressure among allies would be useful. It cannot be that only the United States is trying to push in this direction", added Whitaker, who admitted that some governments will have to "make difficult decisions" to comply with the objective set by Washington of allocating at least 5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to defense. A reference to the social cuts that some European states have made to comply with the demand of the Trump administration.

Regarding Spain, the US ambassador pointed out that "there is no doubt" that Trump "is disappointed," both by the "problems related to access to bases" military in the wake of the war in the Middle East and by "the lack of willingness" of Pedro Sánchez's government to allocate 5% of GDP to military spending. Nevertheless, Whitaker has wanted to downplay it and assured that he does not believe that the NATO summit will end up "revolving around" the relationship between the United States and Spain.

Criticism of European "protectionism"

The Trump administration insists it wants autonomous European allies in military and defense industry matters. However, when it comes down to it, it always pressures them to continue buying weapons manufactured in the United States instead of strengthening their own industry. Thus, Whitaker has announced that the President of the United States will lash out against some of the European Union's "protectionist" measures, which prioritize the acquisition of armaments from European companies.

Despite these criticisms, the US ambassador has expressed his satisfaction that "almost half of the 120 billion dollars" that European allies have spent on major rearmament over the past year has been allocated to American companies. Furthermore, even though the US has completely cut off aid to Ukraine, Whitaker has celebrated the successful functioning of the PURL initiative, driven by the Pentagon to have European allies pay for arms to the US to send to Kyiv's army. At present, according to the same ambassador, around 6 billion dollars have already been mobilized. A round business for the United States.