NATO could be in 'final days', warns former commander as Elon Musk backs leaving alliance
2 March 2025, 06:52 | Updated: 2 March 2025, 09:18
NATO may soon come to an end, a former commander has warned - as he said the US may cease to be trusted by its allies over its Ukraine stance.
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James Stavridis, who served as the Europe commander of the alliance between 2009 and 2013, said it could be replaced with a 'European Treaty Organisation' or ETO - without the US.
Mr Stavridis, himself an American, said that Donald Trump's equivocating attitude to the war in Ukraine, and relative openness to Russia, might mean the European members stop wanting to deal with the US.
Several defence and legal commentators have warned that Mr Trump may try to withdraw from NATO or, more likely, engage much less closely than predecessors.
Meanwhile Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and a key Trump ally, responded to a social media post calling for the US to leave NATO with the words: "I agree".
The speculation comes at a pivotal point in the war in Ukraine, as Mr Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy rowed on Friday, with the US president urging his counterpart to be more grateful for support - sparking a diplomatic row.
Admiral Stavridis said: ""We could be looking at the last days of Nato.
“This is a gut issue about who are you going to support? A democracy that’s under attack, or are you going to support a dictator in Moscow?
“This is going to drive a wedge deep into the heart of the alliance and it’s going to bleed over beyond Ukraine – as to whether the United States can be trusted as a partner," he told CNN.
“We could see the end of NATO and the start of what might be called the European Treaty Organisation, ETO.”
The White House meltdown: What next?
Mr Trump himself has called for NATO members to match their commitments by spending 2% of GDP on defence. Many, including the UK, already do - but even since the war in Ukraine several countries, including Italy, are not funding their military enough.
European countries are meeting in London on Sunday, and Keir Starmer - who recently announced an increase in defence spending to 2.5% - is expected to urge his fellow leaders to hike up their outlays on the military.
It comes against a backdrop of the US, which has been the primary backer of Ukraine, signalling that it wants to cut spending.
Mr Stavridis said: “Donald Trump has made it clear he wants no part of helping Ukraine going forwards. It’s a geopolitical mistake of epic proportion.
"Now the lights go on in Europe, they’re going to have to step up and take this on.
“If I’m a European, at this point I’m saying, I need bigger defence spending, I need my European defence companies to step up, I need to build a European armed forces, I need a command structure outside Nato.”
