LONDON, January 28. /TASS/. European leaders are forced to "think the unthinkable" after clashing with Washington over Greenland, including considering the possibility of the US withdrawing from NATO, The Financial Times reported.

According to the newspaper, NATO "has rested on a confidence trick" since its foundation. The assumption was that each state, the US first and foremost, would support an ally under attack. However, such trust has "already been severely dented" by US President Donald Trump’s expressed doubts about NATO’s usefulness and "disavowal of America’s mutual defense obligations," the article noted.

Former US ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder said that Trump’s threats to seize Greenland, which is part of Denmark, have led to a crisis "much worse than anything we’ve seen in 77 years of NATO history." According to Rachel Ellehuus, head of the Royal United Service Institute in London, "the damage has been done, and uncertainty about the credibility of the US commitment is now an undercurrent of transatlantic relations."

According to Financial Times, several European officials started to "press for a more active debate about the security architecture for the continent." "We need to have a clear strategy of how we are replacing, from a material point of view, all those [US] capabilities, what they call material defense readiness," European Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius told the newspaper. "But also we shall need to discuss more and more… Our understanding about our institutional defense readiness. What we can call the European pillar of NATO. Those discussions also should become more and more intensive," he pointed out. "It’s the proper time now. That is what we need to do," the top EU defense official concluded.