Kathrine Frich
Donald Trump is threatening to shake up a decades-old alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom.
Old alliances rely on shared history and mutual trust to survive turbulent times.
But when a new administration enters the White House, those unwritten rules can vanish overnight.
A remote territory is now caught in a massive diplomatic tug-of-war.
A special relationship
Donald Trump is threatening to shake up a decades-old alliance between the United States and the United Kingdom. He is openly reconsidering American support for British control over the Falkland Islands.
According to The Daily Express, the sudden move could severely strain diplomatic ties between the two nations. When reporters at the White House asked the president about his stance on the territory, he kept his options open.
“I always review every position, that’s just one of many,” Trump told the press.
Pressure on defense
The political maneuvering appears to be a direct tactic to force the new British government to open its wallet. Washington wants London to drastically increase military spending.
An unnamed American official told The Telegraph that the White House expects Britain to spend five percent of its total economic output on defense. If the UK fails to meet that massive target, the US might formally drop its support for the overseas territory.
The dispute over the South Atlantic archipelago has a bloody history. Political tension between Britain and Argentina erupted into a brutal 74-day war in 1982, which ended when Argentine forces surrendered.
Today, the United States maintains a neutral position on who actually owns the islands. But the current Argentine president is a close ally of Trump, giving the South American nation fresh hope.
Britain stands firm
British officials are refusing to back down from the financial threats. Over the weekend, the government insisted the islands will always remain British.
A government spokesperson defended the current military budget in a statement published by The Independent.
“The UK is playing a central role in Nato and strengthening collective defence across Europe. We are Nato’s third largest cash spender on defence and the only European NATO member to commit our nuclear deterrent to the alliance,” the spokesperson said.
This is not the first time Washington has used the islands as diplomatic leverage. According to The Daily Express, a leaked Pentagon email from April suggested the US might pull its support to punish Britain for failing to back American military operations in Iran.
Sources: The Daily Express, The Telegraph, The Independent
