US excludes Britain, France and Baltic states from NATO talks

The United States has held a series of closed-door talks on NATO matters without inviting Britain, France or the Baltic states — even though these countries invest heavily in defence and play key roles within the alliance. The information comes from six diplomats familiar with the preparations for the meetings.

“We're doing everything that's asked of us,” said a representative of one of the sidelined countries. “We're trying to understand what the criteria are and what the point of these meetings is.” Some diplomats don't rule out that the Trump administration is using this as a way to further shake up the alliance. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, and the Pentagon declined to comment.

Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump and his closest advisers have repeatedly criticised the North Atlantic alliance — whether over its refusal to get NATO involved in the military conflict with Iran or the member states' failure to raise defence spending to five percent of GDP. “I have always viewed NATO, for whose members' defence we spend hundreds of billions of dollars every year, as a one-way street. We will defend them, but they won't help us when we need it,” Trump wrote on his social network, Truth Social. A month earlier, the US had similarly “responded” to South Korea's refusal to join the war against Iran by scaling back and cancelling some joint military exercises with Seoul.

Good allies and bad allies

In April, the White House drew up a kind of list of “good and bad countries” and ways to punish allies who don't meet Trump's demands. According to sources, the idea was backed by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who encouraged “model allies” and warned that countries failing to serve US interests would face consequences. A senior Pentagon official, Colby, has already held two similar meetings with representatives of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. The participants, dubbed the “Bergen” group, insist the goal isn't to break up the alliance but to put forward ideas that could help the whole bloc. “This could become an engine of transformation,” one diplomat said, acknowledging that some allies are frustrated at being left out — especially those who met or exceeded Trump's required defence-spending targets.

One source suggests Denmark could also join the “exclusive club,” against the backdrop of an agreement with the US to expand the American military presence in Greenland.

Why the biggest powers were left out

Colby has long favoured narrower formats for talks within NATO. But even the allies who were invited are asking why they were chosen while the continent's biggest powers — Britain, for instance — were not. “If they try to split NATO into good and bad countries, that's dangerous for the US, and an existential question for Europe,” another diplomat added.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz