NATO has been expressing concerns about backing Ukraine in the midst of a potential Trump reelection and what this would mean for NATO’s financing of Ukraine’s military. As we read in the Kyiv Independent:

Ukraine’s allies are considering a change of plan to the format of the Ramstein summits which would see NATO coordinating military aid instead of the U.S., German media outlet Handelsblatt reported on Feb. 9, citing sources.

The Ramstein-format summit of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) comprises over 50 countries, including all 31 NATO members, and has been meeting regularly since April 2022 to coordinate military support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression.

One of the alleged reasons behind this consideration is the possibility of Donald Trump’s return to the White House, according to Handelsblatt.

The media outlet’s sources allege that U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg came up with the plan, which was discussed among NATO members this past week.

France and the U.K. are allegedly supportive of the idea, as well as Ukraine’s Eastern European allies. But Germany allegedly worries that such a move would feed into the Kremlin’s propaganda narrative that NATO is at war with Russia.

This is a response to Trump’s recent statements about not protecting European countries:

Jeremy Kuzmarov, editor-in-chief of Covert Action magazine, told Izvestia:

“There is a growing neo-isolationist trend in Congress, tapping into deep-seated feelings among many Americans that the United States has gone too far in its foreign policy over the past 20 to 30 years. Many neo-isolationists in Congress no longer wholeheartedly support NATO, and many informed Americans see the alliance as an outdated relic of the Cold War. I don’t know if Trump will try to pull the US out of NATO, but it looks like he will be less supportive of the bloc. As for Europe, if the United States stops funding Ukraine, European countries may also lose their resolve …Over the 75 years of NATO’s existence, the philosophy has changed: if previously the United States provided a nuclear umbrella in exchange for loyalty, and Washington supported its allies in exchange for access to territories, now it demands that its allies help it financially”

All of this is leading up to there being a major European military force, which will be led by Germany. This is reflected in the recent words of Belgian Defense Minister Ludivine Dedoner, when she said that the European Union should be able to build its military policy autonomously:

“To ensure the safety of our citizens in a changing world, we, as European countries, must be able to do this on our own, without relying on someone else. <…> We must have our own, European point of view”