Germany and the United Kingdom have signed an important defense treaty, but will it be enough to save NATO as Europe prepares for a new change of US president this week?
ADVERTISINGGerman and UK Defense Ministers Boris Pistorius and John Healey signed a major defense treaty last week, strengthening cooperation on land, sea and airas well as deep precision strike capabilities between the two countries.
The signature of Trinity House Agreement It binds Germany, France and the United Kingdom through bilateral treaties. Experts have been warning for weeks that NATO and Europe’s security could be put in a precarious position after the US presidential election on Tuesday.
The German Government has been preparing to a possible second presidency of Donald Trump for months, but other experts suggest that even if Vice President Kamala Harris is elected, she will shift her attention away from Europe and focus on the Indo-Pacific.
Defense expert Aylin Matlé says that the timing of the agreement it’s not a coincidence. “Even in the event of a Harris victory, I hope that the United States government will demand much more from its European allies,” he says.
“Without a doubt, it is another step towards strengthening the European pillar of NATO. Other steps, for example, are the European long-range strike approach, which focuses on the joint development and acquisition, in a European context, of long-range missiles that have become much more vital for air defense (. ..) after Russia’s renewed attack on Ukraine,” he explains to ‘Euronews’.
Matlé says the agreement is another step to add one more layer to the European side of NATO in the case of a second Trump term.
“Send a powerful message to allies”
However, he adds: “I don’t think that this agreement alone will be the silver bullet that will save and help Europeans contribute much more to their own defense. But I think that, without a doubt, it is a very important step in political termsbecause it sends a message both to its own citizens, as well as to other Europeans and also to the United States.
With a second Trump presidency, Matlé affirms that it would be “very likely that we will see much tougher demands for Europeansmost likely for Germany, which already happened during his first term.
One of Trump’s strongest criticisms of NATO, and Germany in particular, is that Germany did not spend more than 2% of its GDP on Defense before this yearand Trump encouraged Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack countries that were below that threshold.
One of the goals of the treaty, Matlé says, is for Europe to try to convey to American lawmakers and both Harris and Trump “that they are aware and aware of the fact that the United States is really the main contributor to Security provisions and Defence”, and that Europe is willing to share more of the burden.
However, one important thing to note about the Trinity House Agreement is that the pact not yet legally binding.
“To make it legally binding, both countries have to develop a real treaty that they will then sign the two leaders, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and which, as far as I know, will be drawn up at the beginning of next year,” he says.
