Niall O'Connor

THE US AMBASSADOR to Nato has said he spends much of his time “calming everyone down” and believes that Ireland gets the benefit of the alliance without “the pressure” of membership.

Matthew Whittaker is the current head American diplomat in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). He is a staunch Donald Trump supporter and came to prominence previously as acting Attorney General when he criticised the FBI probe into allegations of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

The lawyer and politician was speaking at an event to mark the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence in Ireland.

At a question and answer session in the US Ambassador’s residence in Dublin’s Phoenix Park Whittaker outlined the US vision for European security. It comes in the wake of US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement that there would be a review of US involvement in Europe and in the Nato pact. 

For Whittaker, it has not been without its challenges as he leads the US presence at Nato headquarters in Brussels. 

“I find myself spending a lot of time just calming everybody down and suggesting that this project of Europe taking over the conventional defence of Europe is going to happen whether the United States is here or not,” he said. 

The reference to “conventional defence” is about nonnuclear weapon defence only. 

He said that it was a “long way from that” when he was asked if America would provide the strategic cover for nuclear countries but have only limited troops available to the alliance. He said it was a contest of needs and mentioned that the Pacific would draw in more US troops. 

Whittaker said that the US continues to work with European countries and to “roll up our sleeves” but he warned that panicking countries could cause the alliance to fracture. 

He said it was “delicate to balance” the competing narratives in which the US is criticised for its more robust approach to Europe. Whittaker said that the tensions portrayed about the US and Nato relationship are “not the reality that I deal with every day”.

Those comments from Whittaker come just days after Giorgia Meloni, the Italian prime minister rounded on the US President over a social media post in which Trump claimed Meloni had begged for a photograph. 

He said that while European armies work well with their US counterparts, the problems exist in interactions with politicians. Whittaker said that the criticism by politicians is undermining the alliance. He did not name any particular political figure or country.  

“The challenges are on the political side of the house, and you know that is just a matter that everyone has a domestic political audience, especially in Europe.

“It’s politically popular to either be critical of President Trump or critical of the United States of America, but what these politicians don’t realise is it’s under undermining a political military alliance in NATO, and so that’s the conversation that I’ve been trying to have in Brussels with my colleagues, and in capitals with foreign ministers, prime ministers, defence ministers, and CHOD [military Chiefs of Defence],” he added. 

Matthew Whittaker (right) speaking to Declan Power at the event in Dublin. Ken O'Halloran Ken O'Halloran

He said that the priority was the mutual defence pact of the alliance which ensures that all would come to help if one member was attacked, but he said it was just as important for the alliance that countries meet their financial commitments.

America is currently campaigning for members to up their defence spend to 5% of GDP.

In regard to Ireland and other neutral countries such as Switzerland and Austria, he said that they “have all the benefits of the NATO alliance, but they don’t have to, you know, have any of the detriments”.

“I think Ireland, from my perspective of NATO, gets a lot of the benefits of sort of being NATO adjacent without the pressure,” he added. 

In regard to the upcoming EU Presidency, Whittaker said he believed that Ireland understood the US position on over regulation in the European Union which he said was “pretty insidious”.