The United States takes a hard line in NATO – Finland is envied

Finland is the NATO favorite of the United States, but you can’t say that out loud. This became clear when the last ministerial meeting was held in Brussels on Thursday before the NATO summit to be held in Ankara, Turkey, in three weeks.

As expected, the attention of the NATO Defense Ministers’ Meeting was stolen by the US Secretary of War Pete Hegsethwho announced that the United States plans to reassess its allies, troops and bases in Europe within six months.

The Minister of War accused certain NATO countries of not supporting the United States in its actions against Iran. These are Spain and Italy, which partially did not allow the United States to use their bases to attack Iran.

According to Hegseth, the United States also plans to examine whether the allied countries will fulfill the decision on increasing defense spending that was agreed upon at the NATO summit last summer. The Minister of War anticipates that some member countries will survive this review, but others will not. For example, Slovenia, Albania and the Czech Republic spent less on defense last year than they have previously announced.

According to information from Kauppalehti, the United States is particularly annoyed by the fact that certain large European NATO countries, such as France and Italy, have not informed NATO of their real capabilities that NATO could use in a war situation. The countries have become accustomed to the fact that the United States handles the defense of Europe, even if its own capabilities are put to use by the alliance.

The United States has stressed that Europe must take the main responsibility for its conventional defense against its main enemy, Russia. This was also emphasized by the Secretary General of NATO in Brussels Mark Ruttewho reminded that Europe with 600 million inhabitants can defend itself against Russia with 140 million inhabitants if it wants to.

There was no criticism of the American minister from NATO’s general secretary on Thursday; on the contrary, Rutte defended Hegseth.

“He wants to keep the pressure on, and I think that’s good. I’m glad he’s doing that,” Rutte said.

Although Hegseth did not directly mention good and bad NATO countries, he stated that strong allies are the countries that gathered in Bergen at the beginning of June. It was the Under Secretary of State of the US Department of Defense Elbridge Colbyn led by a meeting held in Norway, in which Finland was also involved.

In practice, the situation now is that the United States divides NATO allies into good and bad, but the truth is more complicated: even if the United States threatens NATO countries that invest too little in defense spending, it still does not mean that NATO allies are ranked based on this alone.

The truth is deeper: a president with an America First attitude Donald Trump’s the administration wants to cooperate more closely, above all, with those NATO countries that benefit it. According to Kauppalehti’s information, the situation causes anger and envy in those countries that would like to be closely under the wing of the United States, but are unable to do so.

Participant in the NATO Defense Ministers’ Meeting Antti Häkkänen (kok) met Hegseth one-on-one in Brussels and admitted at the press conference after the meeting that the United States is having deeper discussions with NATO countries “that want to advance in defense quite seriously”.

Although Häkkänen assured that this does not mean that NATO will change at a completely different pace, it is still a fact. Häkkänen said that the situation caused by the United States “only now needs to be managed in such a way that NATO’s joint operational capability remains good”.

Fortunately for Finland, Hegseth and other decision-makers in the United States see Finland as a true “warrior” nation that is truly valued.

The “defense selfishness” practiced by the United States is by no means exceptional. It also applies to other NATO countries, such as Finland, because in Finland, too, they watch “with the utmost precision” what kind of NATO cooperation or other bilateral cooperation best keeps the motherland safe, as one NATO meeting source described the situation on Thursday.

In terms of Finland’s security, the most important partner is the world’s largest military power, the United States, with which we aim to cooperate closely, regardless of the policies of the current administration.