Donald Trump assured this Wednesday that he is raising “seriously” removing the United States from NATO due to the lack of support from the members of the Alliance in their offensive against Iran. “I always knew NATO was a paper tiger and Putin also knows it,” he stressed in an interview with the British media The Telegraph.
If his threat is true, an unprecedented scenario would open up that raises great unknowns: Can the United States leave NATO? And, if so, What consequences would it have for Spain?
Can the United States leave NATO?
To date, there is no record of any country having left the Atlantic Alliance since its founding in 1949. However, the founding treaty of NATO contemplates an exit clausemeaning that, in theory, a country could leave the organization if it wished, although this procedure is subject to a series of legal and political conditions.
This clause is found in article 13 of the treaty signed in Washington on April 4, 1949. This establishes that for any of the parties to cease being a member of the Atlantic Alliance, they must have elapsed “twenty years of validity of the Treaty”.
Furthermore, the departure would officially materialize “one year after having notified its denunciation to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the Governments of the other Parties of the deposit of each resignation notification.”
More specifically, the date from which member countries could have left NATO is 1969, so that condition has already been overcome. Although this article allows departure, each nation’s application procedure can vary considerably.
As Reuters pointed out, Donald Trump could not unilaterally remove the United States from NATOsince the country has legislation that prohibits such action without express authorization from Congress, or the approval of two-thirds of the Senate.
This is how the departure of the United States from NATO would affect Spain
If the United States were to abandon NATO as Trump proposes, it would leave an unprecedented scenario in Spain, with possible repercussions on security, defense, economy and international relationsforcing the country to rethink its role in the alliance and its geopolitical strategy.
In matters of security and defensehis departure could put more pressure on Spain. The United States is one of the military pillars of NATO and, without its presence, our country would probably have to increase its defense spending. Likewise, the deterrence capacity against threats would be significantly weakened and Europe would have to organize its own defense with less external support.
In this hypothetical scenario the military bases of Morón and Rota. The United States could reduce or rethink its military presence in these bases and Spain would lose strategic relevance and economic impact local.
In this sense, Spain would have a less protection collective response to external threats and would increase the need to strengthen its own military capabilities.
This supposed situation of global instability could also indirectly affect the tourism and commercestrategic sectors for Spain, for fear of international conflicts or tensions.