By ROBERT FOLKER, NEWS REPORTER
The US administration has told its allies including the UK to take control of their own security as part of its new defence strategy.
The 34-page National Defence Strategy document, the first since 2022, criticised partners from Europe and Asia for relying on previous US administrations to subsidise their defence.
It called for ‘a sharp shift – in approach, focus, and tone’. That translates to a blunt assessment that allies should take on more of the burden of countering nations from Russia to North Korea.
‘For too long, the US government neglected – even rejected – putting Americans and their concrete interests first,’ reads the opening sentence.
It comes after Trump threatened to impose tariffs on some European partners to press a bid to acquire Greenland before announcing a deal that lowered the temperature.
Trump also blasted the UK in recent days for ‘an act of great stupidity’ in signing the strategically important Chagos Islands away.
The new policy document views China, which the Joe Biden administration saw as a top adversary, as a settled force in the Indo-Pacific region that only needs to be deterred from dominating the US or its allies. The goal ‘is not to dominate China; nor is it to strangle or humiliate them’, the document says.
It later added: ‘This does not require regime change or some other existential struggle.’