US will not step in to help Europe if Russia attacks, says leaked Pentagon file | World | News
The United States would be unlikely to come to the aid of Europe if Russia attacked, a startling leaked Pentago memo has revealed. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s said in the document that Europe should not rely on the White House to deploy troops in the event of a Russian invasion.
The leaked ‘Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance’ memo stated that American soldiers needed to deter China and to ensure the defence of US territory would not be scrambled to protect European allies. The document did however note that the US would continue to support Europe with its nuclear deterrence.
Mike Martin MP, who sits on the UK’s Defence Select Committee, told Express.co.uk that it is essential that Europe’s moves swiftly to ensure its security on the assumption that it does not have US resources to call upon. “This leaked report tells us in black and white what we’ve known for six weeks: the US is not interested in the defence of the European continent. The UK now needs to work rapidly with our European allies to deliver collective security in Europe without the US”, he said.
The secret document revealed the Trump administration’s almost total prioritisation of defending US interests against China.
“China is the Department’s sole pacing threat, and denial of a Chinese fait accompli seizure of Taiwan — while simultaneously defending the U.S. homeland is the Department’s sole pacing scenario”, Mr Hegseth wrote in the memo.
It adds that Europe must invest more in its own defence to ward off future Russian aggression in the absence of American intervention. European investment in its security “will also ensure NATO can reliably deter or defeat Russian aggression even if deterrence fails and the United States is already engaged in, or must withhold forces to deter, a primary conflict in another region”, the memo says according to the Washington Post.
The former chair of the Defence Select Committee Tobias Ellwood said that the leaked memo will “embolden” the Kremlin “to strive ever further” into Europe.
“It’s a wake-up call to Europe and follows a pattern of evidence that America is bizarrely choosing to get closer to Russia – seeing the world in a very different perspective than any American predecessor since the war.
“Europe quite rightly can no longer see our closest security ally as a guarantor if Russia continues pursuing its own objective expanding westwards”, the former Conservative MP for Bournemouth East warned.
“This is again, unfortunately, confirms the entire new real politik”, he said, adding: “It will embolden, it will enhance, and it will encourage Russia to strive ever further [into Europe].
“Now that Trump is giving every indication that it’s (sic) not got Europe’s back. It’s made Europe all the more dangerous. This is confirmation if we needed it already that we’ve moved into a new era of insecurity and we’ve got to shape up.”
