US needs Europe to face down Russia and China, says Nato deputy chief

The United States needs its European allies to face down the threat of Russia and China, the deputy secretary general of Nato has told The Telegraph.

There are fears Donald Trump could halt military support for Ukraine if he wins November’s presidential election, or even withdraw Washington’s security guarantee for Europe entirely.

But Mircea Geoana said that, with the West locked in an era of “great power competition” with autocratic countries such as Russia, its ally China, North Korea and Iran, the transatlantic alliance was more important than ever.

“As much Europe needs America, America, I think needs all its allies,” he told The Telegraph.

“The strategic reality is that China is a formidable challenger and that Russia and China and all the others together will create massive attempts to disrupt American power.”

He added: “There is an intense aggressive interest from these countries to basically challenge the world order which was introduced after the end of the Second World War.

“In this epic struggle America will need not only its own strength, but also all the allies in the Alliance.”

Trump criticised

Mr Trump has warned he would let Russia do “whatever they hell they want” to any Nato member who does not meet its alliance defence spending target of 2 per cent of economic output.

He was widely criticised for undermining the principle that an attack on one member is one on all.

“We worked for four years with president Trump in the White House. The beginning was quite tumultuous,” Mr Geoana said of a period when Mr Trump branded Nato “obsolete”.

But he said that Mr Trump had been “quite positive” about Nato in his final State of the Union address. He added that the race with Joe Biden was “way too close to call”.

Mr Geoana said: “I think strategic logic will prevail and we are confident that America will continue as they’ve done for the last 75 years and continue to be a key player.”

The United States remains the single largest donor of weapons and aid to Ukraine and some believe Europe is not doing enough.