WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – The U.S. has reportedly informed NATO of its decision not to participate in military exercises in Europe beyond those already scheduled for 2025, raising questions about the future of Washington in the continent.
Swedish media outlet Expressen reported that the decision does not apply to the planning of exercises that have already been agreed upon and will be held in 2025.
However, NATO countries will be forced to plan exercises without the participation of the U.S. military, the largest in the alliance.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO countries for not meeting the current goal of spending two percent of GDP on military, arguing that the disparity puts an unfair burden on the U.S.
He has stated that he wants to prioritize the Indo-Pacific region, which primarily targets China.
On Friday, he warned that the U.S. may not defend NATO countries that do not meet the spending target.
“When I came to NATO, when I first had my first meeting, I noticed that people weren’t paying their bills at all, and I said I should wait till my second meeting,” he told reporters.
“And when I said that, as soon as they said that, it was amazing how the money came in, the money came in, and now they have money. But even now, it’s not enough. They should be paying more,” he added.
Since his inauguration, Trump has shocked allies with moves including ending military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine and excluding European allies from peace talks held with Russia. 
Trump has also threatened NATO by saying that he will pull out U.S. troops from Germany. There are about 160,000 U.S. troops in NATO countries, 35,000 of whom are in Germany. If Trump pulls these troops out of Germany, he will further exacerbate U.S. relations with Western Europe.
German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz on Sunday said he would like talks with France and Britain about sharing their nuclear weapons, but not as a substitute for U.S. nuclear protection of Europe.
“Sharing nuclear weapons is an issue that we need to talk about...we have to become stronger together in nuclear deterrence,” he said in an interview on Deutschlandfunk radio, a day after agreeing cornerstones of a coalition deal between his conservative party and the Social Democratic SPD party.
“We should talk with both countries (France and Britain), always also from the perspective of supplementing the American nuclear shield, which we of course want to see maintained.”
Germany, due to its Second World War past, has bound itself to non-nuclear defense in a number of international treaties but participates in NATO weapons-sharing arrangements.
At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, EU leaders backed plans to spend more on defense amid fears that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, may attack an EU country next and that Europe can no longer rely on the U.S. to come to its aid.