As US retreats, plan for a joint nuclear shield deserves consideration

The startling contempt for Europe's intensifying security concerns displayed by Donald Trump and his henchmen has brought an old, controversial question back to the fore: should Britain and France pool their nuclear weapons capabilities and create a Europe-wide defensive nuclear shield to deter Vladimir Putin's Russia, if the US reduces or withdraws its support?

- Simon Tisdall

Trump has not explicitly threatened to cut US nuclear forces based in Europe. But last week, the president said he wanted to halve the US's defence spending, especially on nuclear weapons. Trump often denigrates Nato, the keystone of European security. Last year, he encouraged Russia "to do whatever the hell they want" to member states that, in his view, spend too little on defence.

Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, warned Nato defence ministers in Brussels that defending Europe was no longer a strategic priority, and raised the prospect of US troop withdrawals. In an insulting speech at the Munich security conference, he minimised the threat posed by Russia. Americans would not be taken for "suckers" by Europeans, he said.

These unprecedented assaults have raised real fears of a damaging, possibly permanent rupture with Washington, prompting France's president, Emmanuel Macron, to call an emergency summit of European leaders in Paris on Monday. The meeting focused on Ukraine, its future defence, and Europe's anticipated exclusion from US "peace talks" with Russia that were due to begin this week.