{"id":41606,"date":"2024-02-15T09:11:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T09:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/?p=41606"},"modified":"2026-07-10T02:43:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T02:43:17","slug":"uk-could-contribute-to-nuclear-shield-if-trump-wins-suggests-german-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/2024\/02\/15\/uk-could-contribute-to-nuclear-shield-if-trump-wins-suggests-german-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"UK could contribute to nuclear shield if Trump wins, suggests German minister"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The UK could contribute to a new European nuclear shield if\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0becomes US president again, a senior German minister has suggested, drawing British politicians into the debate about how Europe\u2019s security could be bolstered in the event of the Republican frontrunner winning in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Questions over a European nuclear deterrence have intensified after Trump\u2019s remarks on Saturday that he would not defend any Nato member that failed to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence \u2013 and would even encourage Russia to continue attacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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European leaders have interpreted the comments as a warning that the alliance\u2019s largely US nuclear shield can no longer be taken for granted if Trump returns to the White House. On Tuesday, Christian Lindner, the German finance minister and the leader of the Free Democratic party, called on politicians to consider an alternative model that could include British and French nuclear weapons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he wrote: \u201cThe strategic nuclear forces of France and Great Britain are already making a contribution to the security of our alliance. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has made various offers of cooperation. We should understand Donald Trump\u2019s recent statements as a call to further rethink this element of European security under the umbrella of Nato.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe question is: under what political and financial conditions would Paris and London be prepared to maintain or expand their own strategic capabilities for collective security? And vice versa, what contribution are we willing to make? When it comes to peace and freedom in Europe, we must not shy away from these difficult questions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central issue in the nuclear debate is less whether Britain or\u00a0France\u00a0would put their nuclear weapons at the disposal of the EU, but whether the two countries could agree to put them at the service of a deterrence strategy for Nato\u2019s European alliance area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although France keeps its nuclear deterrent outside the Nato command structure,\u00a0Macron has <\/a>offered\u00a0to cooperate with Europe on nuclear defence. In 2020, he called for a \u201cstrategic dialogue\u201d on \u201cthe role of France\u2019s nuclear deterrent in [Europe\u2019s] collective security\u201d. Germany\u00a0never took up\u00a0that offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manfred Weber, the German conservative who heads the centre-right European People\u2019s party (EPP) grouping in the European parliament, has thrown his weight behind the debate. He said he did not rule out a European nuclear umbrella and called for \u201ca new chapter\u201d to be opened with London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMacron has already made a vague offer to talk about the importance of the French nuclear forces for Europe,\u201d Weber said. \u201cNow that Donald Trump is openly questioning the role of the USA as a protective power would be the right moment for this. The same applies to the British, with whom we should finally start a new chapter of cooperation after Brexit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking this week, Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, said Macron\u2019s offer of a possible Europeanisation of nuclear weapons to create a common security system should be taken \u201creally seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue is likely to become a theme of the European elections in June, with\u00a0Katarina Barley, the top candidate for Germany\u2019s Social Democratic party, also appearing to back the idea. Trump\u2019s recent statements meant the US guarantee could \u201cno longer be relied upon\u201d,\u00a0she told\u00a0the Tagesspiegel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not everyone is in favour, however. The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, also from the SPD, has called for calm, noting for starters that Trump has yet to win the Republican nomination. \u201cI can only warn against starting such a discussion with such carelessness just because Donald Trump, who is not even a presidential candidate, makes such statements,\u201d Pistorius said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another SPD politician, Ralf Stegner, described the push for common European nuclear weapons as an \u201cextremely dangerous escalation\u201d. He told the Tagesspiegel: \u201cThere is no need for a European nuclear power \u2013 it would be the opposite of European security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK has said its nuclear weapons would be available for use at the request of Nato\u2019s supreme allied commander Europe, the alliance\u2019s most senior uniformed officer, and that they would only be used \u201cin extreme circumstances of self-defence including the defence of our\u00a0Nato\u00a0allies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This offer, however, was made in the context of a US nuclear presence in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Labour party has promised to intensify defence cooperation with Europe, including a commitment by the shadow defence secretary, John Healey, to reach an agreement with Germany within the\u00a0first six months\u00a0of taking office. But this modest pledge had nothing to do with the sharing of Britain\u2019s nuclear deterrent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The UK could contribute to a new European nuclear shield if\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0becomes US president again, a senior German minister has suggested, drawing British politicians into the debate about how Europe\u2019s security could be bolstered in the event of the Republican frontrunner winning in November. Questions over a European nuclear deterrence have intensified after Trump\u2019s remarks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6728,5090,75,5307,5268,8927,4024,10000,9088,11399,913,2825,351,524,159,6621,9505,2404,12354,5575,4028,6351,66,9723,1828,324,3684,414,7806,4802,6666,5925,11057,1253,1198,5396,6027,11698,3805,11377,3174,6944,3457,5655,12605,9262,6348,11331,5724,6571,2982,594],"class_list":["post-41606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news","tag-alliance","tag-boris","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-british","tag-christian","tag-common","tag-conservative","tag-container","tag-debate","tag-democratic","tag-democratic-party","tag-donald-tusk","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-parliament","tag-finance","tag-france","tag-freedom","tag-french","tag-germany","tag-great-britain","tag-labour","tag-labour-party","tag-london","tag-macron","tag-model","tag-nato","tag-nuclear","tag-nuclear-power","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-paris","tag-parliament","tag-peace","tag-pledge","tag-politicians","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-prime-minister","tag-republican","tag-russia","tag-security","tag-uk","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-us-president","tag-weapons","tag-white","tag-white-house","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41608,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41606\/revisions\/41608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}