The Trump administration announced it would leave key NATO members out of a meeting on the alliance’s future scheduled to take place in Poland next month. According to Politico and AP reporting, the sidelined nations include the United Kingdom, France and the Baltic countries.
The invite list reportedly includes Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Poland. With the summit focused on the future of NATO, the decision to divide the alliance has alarmed Western diplomats. Trump had previously threatened to draw up a “naughty and nice list” of alliance members.
On the same day, Russia added to NATO’s concerns by threatening nuclear war. The Kremlin stated that Moscow would not hesitate to retaliate with nuclear strikes if NATO decided to cut off the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Moscow said the warning followed “information” that NATO was preparing an air and naval blockade of Kaliningrad and its surrounding region. Kaliningrad is a small Russian coastal territory sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania.
The exclusion of allies from the NATO future meeting and Russia’s threats have deepened uncertainty over European security, with analysts warning of heightened diplomatic tension in the coming weeks.
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