US-EU Conundrum: Why Paris sees Washington as a risk to European sovereignty in NATO | Explained | World News

Transatlantic relations within NATO are facing one of the most severe tests in recent years. Amid the recent turmoil in Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron has positioned Paris as a vocal defender of European sovereignty and portrayed the United States under President Donald Trump as a growing risk to the continent’s autonomy and territorial integrity.

This tension stems from France’s long-standing advocacy for greater European “strategic autonomy” and is further strengthened by Trump’s assertive demands for NATO funding.

Historically, France has been skeptical of over-reliance on US leadership in NATO. France even withdrew from the integrated military command in 1966 before rejoining in 2009. Paris has long pushed for Europe to develop independent defense capabilities. President Macron has repeatedly stated that this is necessary to prevent “vassalization” or subordination to foreign powers.

Trump’s assertive nature on finance and security

Trump has persistently argued that the United States carries an unfair burden in NATO by providing security. In 2025, Trump signs a major NATO summit agreement in The Hague; Here the allies pledged to increase defense spending from 2 percent to 5 percent of annual GDP by 2035 and considered their push on this issue a major victory.

Trump also destabilized the alliance by suggesting that the United States may not defend allies who do not adequately fund their own security, pushing European leaders to push for a significant increase in military spending.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Europe cannot defend itself without the USA and said, “European leaders need the USA to defend themselves.

“Again, if anyone here thinks that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the United States, keep dreaming. You can’t. We can’t. We need each other.”

The NATO chief’s statement supported Trump’s rhetoric that the United States is Europe’s ultimate security provider.

Trump also cast doubt on Washington’s willingness to defend its NATO allies. He questioned whether the United States would honor its Article 5 mutual defense commitments, saying the United States “gains nothing from helping NATO” and expressing uncertainty about allies standing by the United States.

This security posture in exchange for funding and compliance has raised European concerns that U.S. protection could be conditional, especially amid Trump’s broader “America First” policies.

Trump’s passionate reaction and French resistance

French President Emmanuel Macron harshly criticized Trump’s approach on the grounds that it undermines European sovereignty. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Macron warned that US tariffs and leverage tactics were aimed at weakening and subordinating Europe, saying Europe would not “bow to tyrants” or accept the “law of the strongest”. Macron called endless US tariffs “fundamentally unacceptable.” especially when used against territorial sovereignty and warning against the transition to a “world without rules”.

The flashpoint has been Trump’s aggressive push to seize Greenland, a Danish territory and NATO ally’s presence that asserts U.S. national security and Arctic interests.

Macron even called the Greenland dispute a “strategic wake-up call for all of Europe”, calling on other European leaders to defend sovereignty, Arctic security and counter foreign interference.

To balance this, France advocates a stronger European pillar within NATO; Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot counters Rutte’s warnings, insisting that Europeans “can and must take responsibility for their own security.”

Even in 2018, Macron said that the European Union should stop depending on the United States for security and should now rely on its own military forces for protection.

He also called on EU member states to support large-scale, joint financing to mobilize hundreds of billions of euros of investment in European defense and security as the United States shifts its focus away from Europe.

Macron’s push for a more sovereign Europe, backed by unity against US pressure, underscores Paris’s view that over-dependence on a transactional US undermines NATO’s credibility and Europe’s long-term security in a multipolar world facing Russia and other threats.