NATO breaking apart? Italy questions military alliance's existence after Macron shows Trump, France can secure Europe

The debate around the existence of
NATO
(North Atlantic Treaty Organization) has again heated up after
Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto
said on Friday, June 20, 2025, that the military alliance no longer has a reason to exist.
Crosetto made the remarks on the sidelines of a conference in Padua, according to Italian news agency ANSA.'Before, the US and Europe used to be the center of the world, now, there is everything else with which a relationship must be built,' Politico reported him as saying. He further stated, 'We often talk as if we were still living 30 years ago, but everything has changed.'
In the last few years, the US' stance about sticking around with the alliance has also been seen shaking up as President
Donald Trump
has on several occasions warned that he is open to moving out of NATO.
Trump, since his inauguration as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025, has constantly complained for a long time the European and Canadian governments in the mutual-defense bloc are freeloading on military spending by Washington.
In an interview in December 2024 after winning the US presidential election, Trump was asked if he would consider the possibility of pulling out of NATO. Trump indicated that was an open question. 'If they're paying their bills, and if I think they're treating us fairly, the answer is absolutely I'd stay with NATO,' he told 'Meet the Press.' On being asked about considering pulling the U.S. out of the alliance. Trump had said, 'Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.'
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On the other hand, French President Emmanuel Macron said in May 2025 that he was ready to hold a discussion regarding the potential deployment of his country's nuclear weapons elsewhere in Europe. He had noted that the United States had already stationed nuclear-armed aircraft in Europe.
Macron shared a post on X for the rest of Europe saying the Rafale fighter jet is calling. His post on Friday, June 20, 2025, showed an Apple iPhone with an incoming call from 'Rafale' and a close-up of the jet arcing over barren and rocky land. Now the Italian defense minister's comments ahead of the NATO leaders' summit in The Hague have raised fresh doubts about the unity of NATO partners.
At the summit, the alliance is likely to give its agreement on a higher spending target of 5 percent of GDP to placate Trump. According to Crosetto, NATO has failed in its original mission. 'If NATO was created to guarantee peace and mutual defense, it must either become an organization that takes on this task by engaging with the Global South, and thus become something profoundly different, or we will not achieve the goal of having security within rules that apply to everyone,' he said.
French President Macron's pitch to deploy nuclear weapons in Europe
It all started in March 2025, when the French President proposed holding talks with European allies regarding how French nuclear weapons could help protect Europe. His comments had come at a time when many European leaders felt that they could no longer rely on Washington's nuclear commitment to Europe as Moscow's threat loomed large.
The French President's X post made on Friday seems to be his latest attempt towards sending a loud and clear message to the rest of Europe about strengthening the combined defenses and acting independently on matters of continental security to reduce dependence on Washington.

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