NYT: Trump administration quietly affirms continued nuclear protection for Europe

The recent article by The New York Times claims that official representatives of US President Donald Trump privately assured European allies that the president supports NATO.

Sources from the publication revealed that the Trump administration will also maintain the "nuclear umbrella" over Europe and remain committed to collective defence, per Caliber.Az.

At the same time, the publication reminds that Trump continues to view NATO as a club where members pay for American protection.

Journalists recalled that during his first term, Trump frequently considered withdrawing from NATO, stating that the United States would only defend those countries that contribute sufficiently to defense spending.

This month, he repeated this warning. According to the report, Trump demanded that NATO members spend 5 percent of their GDP on defense, significantly more than the US, which spends about 3.4 percent of its GDP on its global military forces.

At the NATO summit in June, officials aim to set a new spending goal closer to 3.5 percent of GDP, compared to the current 2 percent.

On March 5, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his willingness to discuss expanding France's nuclear deterrence program to other European countries.

Meanwhile, on March 7, Donald Trump called for the elimination of nuclear weapons, noting that he had made significant progress on this issue with Russia. Additionally, he discussed disarmament with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

On March 13, Polish President Andrzej Duda called for the US to deploy nuclear weapons in Poland to deter Russia. He expressed confidence that Trump could decide to relocate nuclear warheads from Western Europe or the US to Poland.

US Vice President JD Vance, commenting on the Polish president's request, stated that he would be shocked if Trump supported the further eastward deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe.

On March 13, Lithuania's Defence Minister, Dovile Šakalienė, said that her country is prepared to consider changing its constitution to allow the placement of nuclear weapons if such an initiative is proposed by NATO allies.