Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
There are other options, though.
There are other options, though.
What is happening?
Trump has suggested, that Spain shold be thrown out of NATO.
The reason for this is the NATO 5 % of GDP benchmark, nearly all of NATOs members agreed on earlier this year.
Spain was the odd one out, not committing to the new spending target.
What exactly did Trump say?
During a press meeting alongside Finnish President, Alexander Stubb, Trump told reporters:
“They have no excuse not to do this, but that’s all right. Maybe you should throw them out of NATO, frankly.”
But that begs the question: Is it even possible to throw out a member of NATO?
The North Atlantic Treaty
The North Atlantic Treaty, the foundation of NATO, outlines 14 articles on what the alliance is about, how to respond to external aggression, how to cooperate and how a country can choose to leave the alliance.
However, it does not specify how to throw out a member, that does not want to leave themselves.
Not the only problem
As a side note, the treaty also doesn’t say anything about how the alliance should react, if two member-countries should end up in an armed conflict.
Basically, the alliance is based on trust, union, diplomacy and has not taken into account to possibility of a member state attacking another as well as the possibility to throw out a member.
So what are the options?
If Spain does not choose to leave the alliance by themselves, there are very limited, if any, options for other NATO-members wanting to throw the Spaniards out.
One option is to put political pressure on the Spanish government. Some might even suggest economic pressure, but this would be a highly controversial move.
Tear it down?
Another option is to simply dissolve NATO and create a new alliance without Spain.
This seems like a very extreme option, but it has in fact been mentioned as late as 2022-2024.
That time, it wasn’t Spain that was the troublemakers – it was Turkey and Hungary.
Finland and Sweden
Finland and Sweden made a joint move to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine i February 2022.
Finland quickly got approved by all the member states, but Hungary and Turkey continued to block Swedens bid to become a NATO-state.
Diplomatic disagreements
A diplomatic war between Turkey and Sweden has raged for years, because an estimated 50-100,000 Kurds, including from Turkey, are living in Sweden.
Turkey has previously accused Sweden of giving sanctuary to members of the Kurdistand Workers’ party (PKK) – a militant political organization initially fighting for an independent Kurdish state.
They are designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, Sweden, the US and the EU, but turkey still accused Sweden of giving members of the PKK sanctuary.
A new NATO
During the diplomatic crisis, the question of throwing Turkey (and maybe even Hungary) out of the alliance began to surface.
Back then, the problem with the treaty not mentioning this option was also pointed, which prompted some to suggest that the NATO-members could dissolve the alliance and then create a new alliance without the unwanted members.
All’s well that ends well
After 22 months of diplomatic tug of war, Turkey finally ratified the Swedish wish of becoming a member of NATO.
But that was just on hurdle. Hungary was still to ratify the application.
As political pressure mounted on Hungary’s leadership, they finally ratified Sweden as a member of NATO.
This article is made and published by Jens Asbjørn Bogen, which may have used AI in the preparation
