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02:41με την αρχή και όλα δημιουργία, με επίπεδο με τους αξίες που δείχνωσες.
02:47Ακόμα και το είδη με το μόλις που πρέπει να μιλήσω στην Ελλάδα.
02:54Είναι όλες οι ευκαιρίες, επίσης προσοχές κατάσταση με το ΣΥΤΡΙΕ,
03:03και στους αντισμούς που είχαν κορδινήσει με όλες και κοροδινήσει με NATO.
03:07and we were talking about it at the table at the NAC.
03:11So I think that is right now a pretty good model for how to address these.
03:18And, you know, everyone wants sort of some line in the sand that says,
03:23if this happens, then sort of that means we invoke Article 5.
03:28But, you know, Article 5 is really ultimately intentionally vague.
03:32It's up to the 32 allies through consultation and conversation
03:35and obviously involvement of capitals to work through that issue.
03:41And it is, I think we're in a really good spot.
03:44But the bottom line is, let's ask why.
03:48Why is this happening?
03:50It's happening mainly to deter NATO and allies from supporting Ukraine,
03:58from, you know, supporting other efforts that the allies and members of the alliance want to support.
04:04and so, you know, that just means we should lean in more as to what we're doing.
04:08We should not be deterred.
04:10Indeed, but you hear from a lot of security services all across NATO
04:14that what Russia or what the Kremlin is doing right now is becoming less risk-averse
04:19because there's very little consequence.
04:21Because, as you said yourself, the hybrid threats are sort of below threshold.
04:24So they don't lead to Article 5, which has only ever been triggered once, as we know.
04:29And they don't lead to an Article 4, a formal situation, a lot of the time.
04:33Because if you have an Article 4 formal conversation and nothing comes out of it,
04:38it sort of makes NATO a little bit weak.
04:40There are many consequences that are both sometimes obvious
04:44and sometimes, you know, not for general sharing.
04:51And that can happen.
04:53And it is, the bottom line, though, is that this is, if it is action by Russia,
05:02which, again, Estonia has ascribed that, the Germans have ascribed that to two recent incidents,
05:07and, you know, why are they doing it?
05:09The reason is to, you know, kind of make allies not want to support Ukraine as much.
05:16And the answer for that is more support for Ukraine.
05:19A lot of others are also saying there's a dual perspective here,
05:22that it's about testing NATO unity,
05:24that the attack could be a small ground invasion, drones and so on,
05:31that could test NATO to the point where they have to have Article 4 and Article 5
05:35and maybe there isn't that unity and maybe the United States isn't there like it might have been.
05:41Well, we're here.
05:41And I continue to show up every day and every week along with, you know, all the members of my
05:47mission.
05:48And, you know, we're not stepping back.
05:49We're just asking our allies to step forward and join us.
05:52And many of them are responding.
05:54But, you know, we're not here to brainstorm ideas for our adversaries to challenge us.
06:00But I can tell you, we do have unity at the table.
06:04and I think one of the reasons we have unity at the table is we are anticipating what the future
06:09could look like.
06:10And we understand where things are going and we need to be prepared and we need to be ready.
06:16And that's the thing that, as I talk to our allies at NATO, readiness is really the number one, you
06:24know,
06:24more capabilities but really a readiness that we have not known.
06:28And to be on a war footing, I mean, it's that simple.
06:31So Article 5 is safe in the hands of this administration anyway.
06:34Yeah, I mean, I think so.
06:35But, like, Article 5 is also about consensus.
06:39And it's all coming together at 32 and responding to whatever the situation in the moment.
06:46It's only been used once.
06:47That was in response to September 11th, which we just, you know, celebrated the 25th year since that awful day
06:56happened in September 2001.
06:59And so, you know, it's very fresh for a lot of us.
07:02But we also, I mean, I understand how NATO responded.
07:06I understand how our allies responded.
07:07And how many of them, you know, fought shoulder to shoulder with us and sacrificed right there with us in
07:12Afghanistan and Iraq.
07:13In the next few months, we'll hear the results of the U.S. force posture review due by December, we
07:22believe.
07:23But we've heard some leaks that it could be as many as 25,000 to 40,000 troops withdrawn from
07:28NATO territory.
07:29Can you give us a bit of clarity about that?
07:31And I suppose the implications that that will have for the nuclear deterrence and deterrence in general.
07:36Because, of course, we do need capabilities, but human beings and soldiers are important, too.
07:41Yeah, those reports are wrong.
07:42I mean, that has not been delivered yet.
07:47The plan hasn't even been finalized by the folks at the Secretary of War's policy shop.
07:54And so I think any kind of leaks about that are folks that are, you know, just trying to, you
08:01know, cause confusion.
08:02The bottom line is, is we have reaffirmed over and over the nuclear umbrella that we provide to NATO and
08:09our allies.
08:10We have continued to say that we're going to stay engaged in Europe.
08:14This is a, not only is it a forced posture review, it is also a forced posture in basing review.
08:20And so we're looking at the issues about access basing and overflight, some of which were a little clunky during
08:28Epic Fury.
08:29And so we're, you know, having some conversations with allies.
08:31We're also having conversations about host nation support.
08:34We have a lot of allies that obviously want American troops.
08:37From a U.S. ambassador standpoint, America first means that we look at it from what's in the interest of
08:43the United States of America and its people and its taxpayers.
08:46And so we are doing that right now.
08:48We're saying, you know, what is the, what is the value of our basing?
08:52Is it, is it what we thought it was?
08:54And, and we're just doing a very kind of mathematical, mechanical analysis of, of how we're laid down globally, because
09:03we have to address global challenges.
09:06Our allies expect that out of us to be able to do that.
09:09On the basing issue, because that was a major bone of contention at the early, at the first stages of
09:15the war in Iran.
09:17And it really didn't seem to have sort of dissipated too much when you hear Secretary of War, Pete Hegg
09:23said, sort of being very critical of member states for not initially allowing basing rights.
09:27Will there be some retribution for some of those countries within NATO that didn't allow those basing rights?
09:33We heard even Emmanuel Macron, the French president, just the other day, making the point that, you know, they weren't
09:38involved in the war in Iran because there were no consultation.
09:39But it, it didn't sit right with Donald Trump.
09:42You know, he was extremely vocally disappointed.
09:45Yeah, I, what I can tell you is, is we had a couple allies that, I, I used the word
09:50clunky.
09:51I'm going to use that again.
09:52I'm, you know, again, I'm a plain spoken Midwesterner and that seems to be exactly kind of what it was.
09:56We had way too many conversations about how and where and, and what the purpose of, of, of airplanes might
10:03be.
10:04And, and obviously at the speed of relevance, you, you can't, you know, lawyers with clipboards at the end of
10:09the day.
10:09of runways approving or, or, or rejecting flights is, is, is not the way you can fight a war effectively.
10:15And so, again, we're having those conversations with just a few countries that we had issues with to make sure
10:21we understand the next time, you know.
10:24That doesn't happen again.
10:24Well, it doesn't happen again.
10:25Or if it does, maybe, you know, we need to reevaluate.
10:28But we had many allies in Europe that allowed us to do everything we wanted to do with our bases
10:34that we have.
10:35And so, I mean, there, it's actually a good news story.
10:39And I see it very much as allies and, and, and our agreements bilaterally with those allies working very well.
10:47And they were very supportive.
10:49So.
10:49Do you believe relations have improved since then?
10:52Yeah.
10:52I mean, again, it is not perfect that, you know, it's, it's like any family that, you know,
10:57there are a few siblings you don't like and you don't want to talk to, but, you know,
11:00mostly, uh, in all seriousness, it is very much, uh, right now, I think NATO is working as an alliance.
11:07You know, the, I think the election of President Trump, um, caused a lot of, um, you know,
11:13sort of uncertainty among our allies that, that, that myself and, and Secretary Rubio, Secretary Hegseth,
11:19and especially the president, I think have worked through, uh, both at The Hague, uh, at, at Ankara and the
11:25summits,
11:25and then also in the, in the ministerials.
11:27And we've had very straightforward conversations about these issues and, uh, I think we're in a good place.
11:33But, you know, the, the next step obviously is, um, what we're going to do, uh, with, with the, with
11:39the, um,
11:40forced posture and basing review.
11:42And, uh, you know, that's yet to be determined in the, in, in, in, in certainly, you know, months away
11:46right now.
11:47Okay.
11:47U.S. Ambassador Nathan Matthew Whittaker, thank you very much for joining us at the Euronews Defense Summit.
11:52All right.
11:52Thank you.
11:55U.S. Ambassador Nathan Matthew Whittaker, thank you very much for joining us at the Euronews Defense Summit.
11:58Thank you.
