{"id":513272,"date":"2026-06-22T21:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/513272\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T21:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T21:38:08","slug":"ireland-enjoys-benefits-of-nato-without-downsides-says-us-envoy-to-military-alliance-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/513272\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland enjoys benefits of Nato without downsides, says US envoy to military alliance \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US<\/a> ambassador to Nato<\/a> has said Ireland enjoys all the benefits of membership of the alliance while incurring none of the downsides.<\/p>\n

Matthew Whitaker, who briefly served as attorney general in Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> first term, made the remarks at an event hosted by the US embassy in Dublin discussing US perspectives on transatlantic security.<\/p>\n

Whitaker spent much of the event defending the Trump administration\u2019s decision to remove US military assets from Europe and to compel countries to take the lead in Nato\u2019s defence of the territory.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is European nations taking over the conventional defence of Europe and the United States provided critical but limited capabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The decision to remove US military assets from Europe has caused widespread concern in EU capitals and fears it will embolden Russia<\/a> to take more aggressive action on the bloc\u2019s eastern flank.<\/p>\n

Whitaker said he spent much of his time visiting European capitals \u201ccalming everybody down\u201d. He said while Europe would take the lead in defending itself, the US would \u201ccontinue to show up, continue to roll up our sleeves, and continue to work on what we\u2019re all trying to accomplish\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also warned against the EU<\/a> developing its own offensive military capabilities outside Nato. Such a move could \u201csee the whole thing spin out of control\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

During the discussion with Irish defence analyst Declan Power, Whitaker did not address whether the US wanted Ireland become a member of Nato.<\/p>\n

However, he said Ireland, along with Austria and Switzerland, enjoys \u201call the benefits of Nato membership\u201d without any of the drawbacks. <\/p>\n

As an external Nato ally through the Partnership for Peace programme, Ireland benefits from Nato programmes, including training, but \u201cthey don\u2019t have to contribute to the force model\u201d.<\/p>\n

Whitaker said, in defence terms, Europe was Washington\u2019s fourth priority, behind the US itself, the western hemisphere and the Pacific.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long they have underspent on their own security, and the American taxpayers, and the hard-working plumbers and farmers of my home state of Iowa, have paid for that bill. All we\u2019re asking is to equalise and share that need for investment in capabilities,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This meant \u201ctough political decisions\u201d, he said, including EU countries spending less on \u201cvery generous social programmes\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

The ambassador said it was \u201cpolitically popular\u201d in Europe to criticise Trump and the US, but said such criticism undermined the \u201cpolitical military alliance in Nato\u201d. European leaders \u201chave to work within the political realities we all face\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Whitaker said there was a divergence between Europe and the US on the common threats face by countries. He cited \u201cradical Islamic terrorism\u201d as a threat many European countries had \u201ckind of let get out of control\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about the threats posed by disinformation and incitement to violence posed by US-based social media companies, Whitaker said the United States and Europe also diverged on the issue of free speech. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese are conversations where the traditions are just different on both sides,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Whitaker said in his view Europe wanted to control everything and protect people\u2019s \u201cdelicate little ears\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to convince you or your elected officials that the US version of free speech is the gold standard, but I can say it\u2019s worked for us for 250 years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US ambassador to Nato has said Ireland enjoys all the benefits of membership of the alliance while…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7038,43],"class_list":["post-513272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}