‘This is not our war’: Europe and U.K. push back against Trump’s demands

LONDON — As President Donald Trump’s assault on Iran enters its third week, European leaders are largely resisting his bellicose demands for help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

At the same time, they are trying to avoid irreparably damaging their relationship with the United States over their opposition to another war of America’s choosing.

To Trump, it should hardly be a difficult decision. He views Europe’s action — or inaction — in the face of the strait’s closure as a test of its commitment to the Continent’s own security. Sending their navies for what he called a “very small endeavor” is the least that Europe’s presidents and prime ministers can do, Trump suggested over the weekend.

At an event Monday at the White House, Trump complained that some European leaders were not showing their appreciation for everything that the United States had done to protect the Continent.

“We have some countries where we have 45,000 soldiers, great soldiers, protecting them from harm’s way, and we have done a great job,” he said. “And well, we want to know, do you have any mine sweepers? ‘Well, we’d rather not get involved, sir.’”

Trump also issued a not-so-veiled warning in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, saying that “it will be very bad for the future of NATO” if European nations do not join the United States in its effort to reopen the vital waterway to tankers carrying oil, gas and fertilizer. At Monday’s event, he said: “I think we’re going to have some good help. And I think we’re going to be disappointed in some nations, too.”

“I’ll let you know who those nations are,” he added.

The threat was a continuation of Trump’s bullying style of diplomacy. During trade negotiations last year, the president repeatedly berated leaders who complained about his tariffs. More recently, he lashed out at British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, essentially accusing him of caution and cowardice. Upon hearing that Starmer was considering sending naval ships to the Middle East, he mocked the prime minister.

“That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer,” Trump wrote on social media on March 7. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

For Trump’s counterparts around the world, the tricky part of the diplomatic dance is how to react to the president’s whims while meeting the needs of their own countries. Starmer has arguably been the European leader most eager to please Trump. And yet, on Monday, he vowed at a news conference that his country “will not be drawn into the wider war” with Iran.

“My leadership is about standing firm for the British interest, no matter the pressure,” Starmer said without specifically referencing the president. He added that British officials were working with “all of our allies, including our European partners” on what could be done collectively to reopen the strait.

On Monday, Trump claimed that “numerous countries have told me they’re on the way,” noting that French President Emmanuel Macron would most likely help in the Strait of Hormuz and was an 8 out of 10. “Not perfect, but it’s France,” he said.

Others are not demonstrating sufficient enthusiasm for his demands, he said.

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“For 40 years, we’re protecting you, and you don’t want to get involved,” the president said, mockingly. “I’ve been a big critic of all of the protecting of countries, because I know that we’ll protect them, and if ever needed, if we ever needed help, they won’t be there for us. I’ve just known that for a long period of time.”

In fact, the only time NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense pact has been invoked in the organization’s 77-year history was after the 9/11 attacks, when the alliance came to the aid of America. Soldiers from Britain and other European nations died fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Several European leaders explicitly rejected the president’s call to send their navies into harm’s way even as the U.S. and Israeli-led war continues to drive up the price of global energy.

“This is not our war; we did not start it,” Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defense minister, said Monday morning. He said Germany wanted diplomatic solutions and “sending more warships to the region will likely not help achieve that.”

Earlier this month, Macron had said he supported the idea of sending French naval ships to escort tankers through the strait, though he said it could happen only after the fighting stopped. On Monday, the French Foreign Ministry posted on social media that its navy was staying in the eastern Mediterranean: “Posture has not changed: defensive it is.”

The economic pressures on European officials are real, with prices of gasoline and heating oil spiking and voters expressing dismay about the effect on their pocketbooks.

But so is the sense of déjà vu. Leaders in Europe and around the world remember the last time an American president called on allies to assemble forces in the Middle East. In many parts of Europe, the 2003 invasion of Iraq is seen as a costly mistake, driven by faulty intelligence at the insistence of former President George W. Bush.

In the current conflict the risks are once again enormous. Do nothing and stand by as prices surge, potentially ruining the chances for economic growth and sowing anger among people who are struggling to make ends meet. Or join the fight and face the possibility of military losses that trigger an even deeper engagement with Iran and its terror proxies.

And they have to navigate Trump’s long-standing accusation that NATO countries are laggards when it comes to their own defense.

Nick Carter, Britain’s former chief of the defense staff, said in an interview with BBC Radio that it would be inappropriate for NATO forces to join the United States and Israel in their war against Iran.

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NATO was created as “a defensive alliance, and all of its articles are essentially oriented towards the defense,” he said. “It was not an alliance that was designed for one of the allies to go on a war of choice and then oblige everybody else to follow.”

Starmer, who has been repeatedly attacked by Trump for not participating in the initial attack against Iran, reiterated that point in his news conference.

“Let me be clear, that won’t be and it’s never been envisioned as a NATO mission,” he said.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also downplayed expectations that Italy’s navy would be drawn into protecting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. An Italian missile frigate is in an allied strike group accompanying France’s aircraft carrier, but so far its operations are limited to the eastern Mediterranean.

“We are not involved in military operations in the Strait of Hormuz,” Tajani told the Italian television program TG 4 on Sunday.

He said that Italy “never said — but neither did France, no other European country has offered to send military ships to force a passage through the Strait of Hormuz.”

An Italian aircraft was destroyed Sunday by a drone attack on the Ali Al Salem base in Kuwait that also houses U.S. troops, but the Italian military said none of its personnel were injured.

On Monday, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Polish leaders had also “ruled out” sending the country’s forces into the conflict against Iran.

Regarding Hormuz, “there hasn’t been any discussion within the government on this matter yet,” Sikorski said in Brussels. “It’s a bit worrying that President Trump refers to NATO as ‘them’ or ‘Europe’ rather than ‘us’. There are procedures in place. From what I understand, these haven’t yet been initiated within NATO.”

Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, said Monday that the European Union would not expand a maritime operation known as “Operation Aspides” in the Middle East to help protect commercial traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

“This is not Europe’s war, but Europe’s interests are directly at stake,” Kallas said, after meeting with foreign ministers from across the 27-nation bloc in Brussels. She added: “For the time being, there was no appetite in changing the mandate of the Operation Aspides.”