Not a Nato fan, is Trump forced to double down on trans-Atlantic defence amid Russian threat?

President Donald Trump’s disdain for Nato and ties to Russia are not a secret. Yet US soldiers are reenforcing the military alliance’s northern flank in Europe.

In recent weeks, US soldiers have joined British, Finnish, Swedish, and Lithuanian personnel in Europe’s Nordic and Baltic regions for military drills at Russia’s doorstep. They have held exercises in key strategic locations, such as Sweden’s Gotland island, which is at the centre of the country’s rearmament in the wake of the Russian aggression and is set to serve as a hub for Nato logistics and maritime domination in case of any conflict in the region.

The exercises have come at a time when Russia has ramped up attacks up Ukraine and started flexing muscle in Europe beyond Ukraine — Russia has started beefing up military infrastructure along the border with Finland. Trump has also shown increasing frustration with Russian leader Vladimir Putin for rebuffing his repeated pleas to stop attacks on civilians and proposals for ceasefire.

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Amid such rising tensions, the increased US involvement in northern Europe appear to be part of a realisation in Washington that, despite Trump’s disdain for Nato, neither the alliance nor European security could be abandoned altogether.

US soldiers beef up northern Europe’s defences

In recent weeks, US soldiers have joined Nordic and Baltic militaries for military drills in Sweden’s Gotland island, which is just 200 miles from Russia’s Kaliningrad, the exclave that is situated strategically between Lithuania and Poland along the Baltic coast.

The Kaliningrad exclave is heavily militarised and hosts the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic Sea fleet, multiple airbases, ground forces bases, and missiles and air defence units.

In Finland, around 6,000 Finnish, Swedish, and British soldiers held drills just 70 miles from the Russian border, according to Newsweek.

The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Trump administration wants Nato to be more “lethal” and northern Europe, where Russia lies on two sides, is a testing ground for the bloc.

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In exercises that lasted for three weeks, US and British forces joined Nordic and Baltic militaries to practice potential war scenarios, including live-fire drills, blood resupplies by drone, and airborne jumps above the Arctic circle in Norway, and simulations of evacuation and treatment of casualties in Lithuania through different medical and evacuation systems, according to the newspaper.

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The goal of the exercises was two-fold: deter Russia and firmly integrate Nato allies.

Referring to Sweden and Finland joining Nato after Russia’s attack on Ukraine in 2022, Kristian Atland, a Senior Research Fellow at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, told the newspaper that “Nato enlargement has also made it easier for Nato to transfer reinforcements to the Baltic states in the event of a military crisis or conflict in that region”.

‘My orders haven’t changed’: US commander on Europe’s defence

Even though Trump has berated Europe and aligned the United States with Russia, a senior US military officer in Europe has said that the formal orders have not changed.

“From a US Army perspective, my orders haven’t changed. I have been doing this too long to get hyper-focused on political winds and messaging that isn’t orders," Brigadier General Andrew Saslav, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations for US Army Europe and Africa, told The Journal.

The comments have come at a time when, despite Trump’s beratement of Europe, northern Europe —particularly Baltics— has emerged as a critical area because of access to key shipping routes, energy reserves, and some highly strategic locations, such as the island of Gotland.

“As Russia’s maritime strategic locations in the Baltic Sea are very weak, any conflict will include Russia immediately seeking to occupy key port areas in the Baltics, Finland and Poland. The key military strategic location of Gotland will most likely be the scene of hostile action in the opening stage of conflict,” Stefan Lundqvist, Sweden chair to the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies in Alaska, told The Journal.