Shortly before departing for a NATO meeting in Sweden, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said it shouldn't be a surprise that the United States and President Donald Trump in particular are currently very disappointed with the alliance and what it stands for.
Specifically, Rubio cited anger over the refusal of countries such as Spain to allow the use of bases for the war against Iran. He said the US membership in an alliance had to have value for the US and that a central value in NATO was US bases in Europe. These made it possible for the US to project military power in a crisis in the Middle East or elsewhere.
If then you have "countries like Spain denying us the use of these bases, well then why are you in NATO. That's a very fair question," Rubio said in an interview that was shared on YouTube.
He did say that "other countries in NATO have been very helpful," though he did not name them, but said the situation needs to be discussed.
Summer summit
At a meeting in Sweden on Friday, the NATO foreign ministers want to prepare the alliance's summer summit meeting which is to take place in Turkey.
The gathering is overshadowed by new transatlantic tensions over the Iran war. The cause is Trump’s displeasure that European allies are not supporting, or are supporting only to a small extent, the US approach against the Islamic Republic.
Most recently, the US announced the withdrawal of around 5,000 soldiers from Europe after critical comments from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and decided not to implement plans for the deployment of intermediate-range weapons in Germany - at least for now.
In a discussion with pupils, Merz said the US could not end the war quickly "because the Iranians are obviously stronger than thought and the Americans obviously also do not have a really convincing strategy in the negotiations."
Trump then personally attacked Merz and accused him of having no idea what he was talking about. There were also tensions over the war between the US and Spain as well as Italy, Britain and France. Among other things, they concerned bases and overflight rights.
The US did not consult its NATO allies before attacking Iran, together with Israel, on February 28.
