Donald Trump’s turn away from NATO came to fruition last month in the waters off Iceland.
Allied forces gathered here to practice hunting for Russian submarines, drawing German surveillance planes to scour the waves alongside Canadian warships and Belgian fighter jets. […]
The NATO forces, led by a French commander, aimed to prove to themselves and Moscow that they could protect the continent without American leadership. And in stepping back, the U.S. cemented a pullback that began with the second Trump administration — and further ceded the strategically important Arctic to its allies.
“We see Europe and Canada stepping up, and we see it literally here in Iceland,” Iceland’s Defense chief, Jónas Allansson, said in an interview. […]
The officials acknowledged they were operating with a smaller force than previous years. But standing on the Canadian warship’s deck with a German submarine-hunting plane overhead and the French’s Auvergne frigate a few hundred yards over his shoulder, Molitor noted that the NATO ships are never alone.
“We will always be sailing with allied ships,” he said, “and this is a strength.” Even if the Americans aren’t sailing with them. Läs artikel