标签： Europe

A leaked internal Pentagon memo obtained by Reuters has exposed unprecedented proposals from the United States to impose punitive measures on NATO allies that the Trump administration accuses of failing to back the US and Israel during their late February military campaign against Iran. The controversial plans include the radical step of suspending Spain’s membership in the 77-year-old transatlantic alliance and reopening a formal review of the United Kingdom’s long-recognized sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

The disclosure comes amid a sustained wave of public criticism of NATO from President Donald Trump, who has spent months lashing out at member states for their perceived lack of support following the Iran conflict, which led to Iran imposing restrictions on commercial shipping through the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz. Trump has repeatedly questioned the alliance’s relevance, even labeling it a “paper tiger” and openly floating the possibility of a full US withdrawal from the bloc. In a post on his Truth Social platform following a recent meeting with new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the president doubled down on his stance, writing bluntly: “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN.” He has also consistently accused fellow member nations of free-riding on the massive US military investment that underpins collective transatlantic security.

NATO officials pushed back immediately on the suspension proposal, telling the BBC that the alliance’s founding treaty contains no legal mechanism to suspend or expel a member state. Downing Street also rejected the suggestion of reviewing Falkland Islands sovereignty, reaffirming that the UK’s claim to the territory remains unambiguous and fully rooted in the self-determination of the islands’ population.

Founded in 1949 in Washington D.C. by 12 original signatory nations, NATO was initially created to counter Soviet expansion in Europe and foster political integration across the continent to prevent the resurgence of nationalist militarism. Today, the alliance counts 32 member states spanning North America and Europe, with the most recent expansions bringing Finland into the bloc in 2023 and Sweden in 2024, both abandoning decades of neutrality after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Georgia hold official candidate status and have formally requested membership.

At the core of NATO’s collective defense framework is Article 5, which states that an armed attack against any single member is considered an attack against all, requiring members to take whatever action they deem necessary to restore security. To date, Article 5 has only been invoked once, in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001. A separate provision, Article 4, allows members to bring pressing security concerns to the alliance’s main decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, and has been used seven times since the alliance’s founding.

In 2025, NATO leaders agreed to a landmark new defense spending target requiring all members to commit 5% of their national GDP to defense-related expenditure by 2035. Of that total, 3.5% must go toward core defense capabilities, with up to an additional 1.5% allocated to broader security infrastructure. Prior to this agreement, members operated under a non-binding 2% target, which all alliance nations finally met for the first time in 2025. The United States remains by far the alliance’s largest defense spender, contributing roughly $980 billion in 2025 – accounting for 60% of total NATO defense spending across all members. Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, all frontline states facing direct Russian pressure, each spent over 3.5% of GDP on defense in 2025, while the UK reported 2.3% of GDP spent on defense that year, with a government target to reach 3% by the end of its next parliamentary term.

Ukraine’s path to NATO membership remains one of the alliance’s most contentious issues. Russia has vehemently opposed Ukraine’s accession, viewing the expansion of alliance infrastructure to its border as an existential security threat. After the 2022 invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed to accelerate the accession process, but former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed membership would only move forward after the conclusion of active hostilities. Most recently, in August 2025, President Trump stated that Ukraine would not be permitted to join NATO as part of any proposed peace deal with Russia, placing a major new cloud over Kyiv’s long-term membership aspirations. While NATO has labeled Russia’s invasion of Ukraine the most direct threat to transatlantic security in decades, the alliance has declined to deploy direct military support or impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine to avoid a direct armed conflict with nuclear-armed Russia. Individual member states, however, have provided billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid to Kyiv since the invasion began.

Tensions are roiling the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after a leaked internal Pentagon email laid out potential retaliatory measures against alliance members that have declined to back US military efforts in the ongoing Iran conflict, sparking a fierce debate over alliance cohesion and the future of collective defense commitments. The leak, first reported by Reuters via an unnamed senior US official, triggered immediate pushback from NATO leadership, affected member states and key European allies, who have moved quickly to reject any suggestion that membership could be revoked or suspended.

The controversy stems from growing friction between the US administration under Donald Trump and several NATO allies over responses to the Iran conflict that escalated after joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran in late February. Following the attacks, Iran restricted commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical chokepoints for global energy supplies. Spain has drawn particular US ire for its refusal to grant US forces access to its two military installations — Naval Station Rota and Morón Air Base — to launch offensive operations against Iran.

In the wake of the report claiming Washington was exploring options to suspend Spanish membership over its stance, a NATO spokesperson told the BBC that the alliance’s founding Washington Treaty contains no mechanism whatsoever to suspend or expel member states. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez also dismissed the leaked memo outright, noting that Madrid only recognizes formal official communications from the US government. “We do not work based on emails. We work with official documents and official positions taken, in this case, by the government of the United States,” Sánchez told reporters. He added that Spain remains committed to full cooperation with its allies, but that all actions will adhere strictly to international law.

Beyond potential action against Spain, the leaked email also outlined a far more provocative proposal: reassessing longstanding US diplomatic support for the United Kingdom’s sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands, a South Atlantic territory that is also claimed by Argentina as the Malvinas. The 1982 Falklands War between the UK and Argentina ended in British control of the archipelago, which sits roughly 300 miles off Argentina’s coast and 8,000 miles from the UK. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has already drawn a line against deeper involvement in the Iran conflict, saying that expanding UK participation in the war or supporting the current US port blockade of Iran runs counter to British national interests. While the UK has allowed the US to use its military bases for strikes on Iranian targets and has deployed Royal Air Force jets to shoot down Iranian drones, Starmer’s government has stopped short of full backing for the US campaign.

Other retaliatory options outlined in the memo included removing so-called “difficult” allied nations from key leadership positions within the alliance’s bureaucratic structure. The memo did not propose a full US withdrawal from NATO or the permanent closure of American military bases across Europe, the source told Reuters. Instead, it framed access to basing, staging and overflight rights as the non-negotiable baseline for alliance participation, arguing that members that refuse to extend these privileges should face consequences.

Trump has spent months openly criticizing NATO allies for what he frames as unequal burden-sharing and a lack of reciprocity in security commitments. Just last month, he repeated his longstanding claim that NATO has been a “one-way street” for the US, writing that “We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us.”

In an official comment following the leak, Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson did not deny the existence of the internal memo, and echoed the president’s criticism of alliance members. “Despite ‘everything’ the US has done for its NATO allies, ‘they were not there for us,’” Wilson stated. She added that the Defense Department will work to present the president with actionable options to ensure that allies move beyond being a “paper tiger” and begin contributing their fair share to collective defense efforts, declining to offer further detail on internal deliberations.

Key European leaders have moved quickly to tamp down divisions and reaffirm their commitment to alliance unity in the wake of the leak. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni used a recent EU summit in Cyprus to call on all NATO members to close ranks, arguing that the alliance remains an indispensable source of collective strength for the transatlantic community. “We must work to strengthen NATO’s European pillar… which must clearly complement the American one,” Meloni told reporters.

A German government spokesperson echoed that sentiment in a regular Berlin press briefing, saying that Spain’s NATO membership is not in any doubt: “Spain is a member of NATO. And I see no reason why that should change.” Other European powers, including France, have joined the UK in saying they will only commit to securing the Strait of Hormuz after a lasting ceasefire or end to the conflict. The BBC has reached out to both the Pentagon and 10 Downing Street for additional comment on the leak and the proposals outlined in the memo.

Amid growing transatlantic friction over U.S. military operations in the Iran war, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has declined to engage with unconfirmed reports that the Pentagon is considering punitive measures against NATO allies that refuse to back American actions. Spain has emerged as a primary target of this potential pushback, after Madrid formally barred U.S. forces tied to the conflict from accessing its military bases and national airspace. The Spanish government has repeatedly justified its position by arguing that U.S.-Israeli military action in Iran violates international law.

Spain is not alone in its refusal: both France and the United Kingdom have also declined to grant U.S. forces unfettered access to their territories for bombing operations against Iran. Reports of the Pentagon’s internal deliberations first emerged via Reuters, which cited an anonymous U.S. official referencing an internal Defense Department email. The document even raised the possibility of suspending Spain’s full membership in NATO, alongside a proposal to reassess longstanding U.S. support for the United Kingdom’s territorial claim over the Falkland Islands (known as the Islas Malvinas in Argentina).

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a European Union summit held in Nicosia, Cyprus, Sánchez pushed back on the unsubstantiated claims. “We do not work with emails,” the prime minister noted. “We work with official documents and positions taken, in this case, by the government of the United States.” He reaffirmed that Spain’s stance remains unchanged: “The position of the government of Spain is clear: absolute collaboration with the allies, but always within the framework of international legality.”

This tension comes as NATO itself has formally distanced itself from the Iran conflict. Operating on the basis of consensus, the alliance requires the unanimous agreement of all 32 member states to launch collective action. Crucially, NATO’s founding charter also lacks any formal mechanism to suspend or expel a member nation, even if a member disagrees with the policies of one ally. Member states are only permitted to voluntarily exit the alliance, a process that requires one year’s formal notification to other partners. As an institution, NATO’s only direct role tied to the conflict is limited to defending its own sovereign territory.

The friction has its roots in former U.S. President Donald Trump’s public anger over what he frames as a failure of many NATO allies to back U.S. actions in Iran and assist with security patrols in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil trade chokepoint. Trump has repeatedly questioned the value of U.S. membership in the transatlantic military alliance, and has even threatened to impose trade restrictions on Spain in retaliation for its base access ban. Beyond the Iran war, Spain has also drawn criticism from allies for failing to meet agreed NATO defense spending targets.

EU officials have voiced confusion over the U.S. criticism of European allies, noting that France and the United Kingdom are already leading a planned effort to secure maritime trade in the Strait of Hormuz once hostilities in Iran end. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas pointed out that Washington has already asked the bloc to deliver exactly the post-conflict support Europe has committed to providing. “When we have had contacts with the American counterparts, then actually their asks for us have been exactly what we are able to offer after the cessation of hostilities,” Kallas said. “Demining, escorting of ships, all of this that we have been discussing.”

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, however, has implicitly criticized the position of Spain and other allied holdouts, noting that long-standing bilateral agreements between the U.S. and European allies covering overflight access and base hosting should be honored. To date, several other NATO allies have permitted U.S. warplanes to use their airspace and American military bases on their territory for operations tied to the Iran war.

Against a backdrop of growing uncertainty over the durability of U.S. security commitments to Europe, EU leaders used the Nicosia summit to debate new frameworks for collective European self-defense. With Cyprus holding the rotating EU presidency through July, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides confirmed that leaders have instructed the European Commission to draft a strategic blueprint outlining how the bloc would respond if one member requests collective assistance under Article 42.7 of the EU treaties.

This mutual defense clause has only been invoked once in the bloc’s history, when France requested support following the 2015 terror attacks in Paris. Next month, EU envoys and defense ministers will hold table-top simulation exercises to test how the clause could be activated in future scenarios, mapping out how the bloc can leverage not just its combined military capabilities, but also other policy tools unavailable to NATO—including trade sanctions, border management, and visa restrictions.

At Lithuania’s Šiauliai Air Base, the rhythm of NATO’s frontline Baltic air policing mission is defined by split-second urgency. When the alliance’s scramble alert sounds, French Rafale fighter pilots — already pre-suited to cut response times — rush in vans to prepared, missile-armed jets waiting in hardened hangars. Within minutes of lifting off from the northern European base, they are over the Baltic Sea, executing standard intercept procedures for Russian military aircraft approaching NATO alliance airspace.

On a recent busy Monday observed by an Associated Press journalist, French pilots scrambled under NATO command to intercept a coordinated Russian flight formation: two nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 supersonic bombers, which Russia has repurposed for ground strikes in Ukraine, escorted by advanced Su-30 and Su-35 fighter jets. The Russian warplanes flew a more than four-hour mission from a base near St. Petersburg, passing the coastlines of five NATO nations — Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland — before turning back near Danish airspace. According to the French detachment, the Russian aircraft never activated their transponders, filed required flight plans, or maintained radio contact with civilian air traffic controllers. Fighters from Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark and Romania also launched to monitor the incursion, a multilateral show of coordinated airspace security.

This high-alert cat-and-mouse game plays out hundreds of times a year, hundreds of miles from public view, as NATO seeks to avoid an accidental escalation that could pull the 32-nation alliance into open conflict with Russia amid tensions over Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In intercepts like this, neither side crosses into open hostility: pilots from both forces simply monitor and document one another, maintaining a cautious distance even as armed missiles remain visible on jet hardpoints. As mission commanders describe it, the dynamic is less cat and mouse than two wary cats, claws bared but holding back from a fight.

The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — all NATO members that share borders with Russia and its ally Belarus — lack the independent air power to defend their own airspace. Since 2004, when the three countries joined the alliance, NATO has rotated national detachments through Baltic bases to maintain 24/7, year-round air policing, a mission designed to deter aggression rather than provoke conflict, and reassure frontline allies of the alliance’s collective security commitment.

Currently, the Šiauliai base hosts two detachments: a four-jet French Rafale wing, commanded by Lt. Col. Alexandre — whose full surname is withheld for security reasons — and a six F-16 contingent from the Romanian Air Force. The French detachment took over the mission from Spanish forces earlier this spring, and will hand off to an Italian unit when their four-month rotation ends in August. A wall inside the base’s temporary headquarters bears plaques and badges from every rotating detachment that has served at the base, a quiet record of the mission’s continuity.

Col. Mihaita Marin, commander of the Romanian detachment, explained that NATO forces are required to scramble whenever Russian military aircraft violate International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) rules for international airspace — rules that govern transponder use, flight planning, and radio communication. “There are plenty of times in which, on purpose or not, they’re not really respecting the ICAO rules,” Marin said. “So obviously we are forced to take off and just make sure that they are who they say they are and their intention is peaceful.”

The arrival of spring, which brings milder temperatures and clearer flying conditions across the Baltic region, has pushed interception rates higher. Since French and Romanian forces deployed for their rotation in early April, interceptions have become nearly a daily occurrence, a rate commanders expect to climb further as weather improves. Lt. Col. Alexandre noted that it remains unclear why Russian pilots repeatedly operate in violation of global airspace rules. “We don’t know if it’s lack of professionalism or just a means for them to test us,” he said. “But what is sure is that we need to go every time. We cannot say, ‘OK, that’s usual, this time we will just let them pass.’”

Across the tense standoff, the core goal of the NATO mission remains consistent: to maintain constant vigilance without triggering the open war both sides currently seek to avoid. “We watch each other, scrutinize each other and try to make sure that it doesn’t go any further,” Alexandre said.