{"id":755,"date":"2026-04-21T21:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/?p=755"},"modified":"2026-04-21T21:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T18:38:11","slug":"the-us-demanded-that-the-europeans-accelerate-their-transition-to-nato-3-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/2026\/04\/21\/the-us-demanded-that-the-europeans-accelerate-their-transition-to-nato-3-0\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Demanded That The Europeans Accelerate Their Transition To \u201cNATO 3.0\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby gave an important speech<\/a> at mid-April\u2019s Ukraine Defense Contact Group in which he urged the Europeans to step up their transition to something that he described earlier this year as \u201cNATO 3.0\u201d. As was explained here<\/a>, \u201cThe idea is that NATO should return to focusing on defending itself instead of overextending itself in the Indo-Pacific, West Asia, Eastern Europe, and elsewhere\u201d, and the preceding hyperlinked analysis explains how it aligns with Trump 2.0\u2019s policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Circling back to Colby\u2019s speech, he demanded that \u201cEurope must accelerate its assumption of primary responsibility for the conventional defense of the continent\u201d, including arming Ukraine through the \u201cPrioritized Ukraine Requirements List\u201d (PURL) program in which the US plays the most significant role. To that end, \u201cThe need to quickly rebuild European munitions stocks is paramount, as is the need to remove protectionist trade barriers that stifle the continent\u2019s industrial potential.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that \u201cDeveloping a robust, capable, and integrated European defense industrial base cannot simply be an aspiration, but an absolute pre-requisite for credible deterrence and defense.\u201d Knowing how obsessed they are with Ukraine, Colby then threw in that \u201cThis will be critical to achieving an end to the war in Ukraine, on terms that support an enduring peace.\u201d He then called for more \u201cdeeds and a fundamental change in attitude\u201d from them to \u201caccelerate this transition to a \u2018NATO 3.0\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Colby concluded that \u201cIf Europe rises to this moment \u2013 truly embracing primary responsibility for the defense of the continent in line with our vision of a rebalanced \u2018NATO 3.0\u2019 \u2013 we will all be stronger and more credible in defending our people and our national interests.\u201d He also ominously warned them midway through his speech that \u201cI underline the criticality of [NATO stepping up to help secure the Strait of Hormuz per Trump\u2019s expectation] for our relationship going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As was assessed here<\/a> last month and was just implicitly reaffirmed by Colby, the US might speed up its planned military reprioritization<\/a> away from Europe to the Americas and the Indo-Pacific if they reject Trump\u2019s request by ending its significant PURL contributions before NATO can replace them. That would facilitate a full Russian victory in Ukraine, or at least spook the Europeans into fearing that this is inevitable if they don\u2019t step up right after he cuts off arms again<\/a>, thus getting them to do what he wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If some members of the bloc refuse to contribute while others do, then Trump might impose his reportedly considered pay-to-play model that was described here<\/a>, which would remove \u201cdissidents\u201d from decision-making processes and withdraw the US\u2019 Article 5 support from them. These punishments could also be imposed for refusing to spend 5% of GDP on defense. It\u2019s very likely that Colby conveyed these punitive plans to his counterparts on the sidelines of the event even if he only hinted at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His urging of them to step up their transition to \u201cNATO 3.0\u201d, which is his brainchild, can therefore be considered the US\u2019 final warning before it takes drastic action to punish those who continue to reject Trump\u2019s demands. Imposing the pay-to-play model is one form that this could take while cutting off arms to Ukraine once again could be another. Both could also happen together. It\u2019s unclear what NATO as a whole will do, let alone its individual members, but it\u2019s obvious that Trump is losing patience with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article was originally published on\u00a0Andre Korybko<\/a>\u2018s Substack account and is republished with the author\u2019s permission.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby gave an important speech at mid-April\u2019s Ukraine Defense Contact Group in which<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[204,249,72,258,243,257],"class_list":["post-755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion-analysis","tag-europe","tag-nato","tag-opinion-analysis","tag-trump-2-0","tag-ukraine","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesilknews.com\/en\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}