The Trump Administration Convened a Select NATO Working Group in Poland to Discuss the Alliance's Future — and Pointedly Left Out the United Kingdom, France, and the Frontline Baltic States, Three of the Allies Most Committed to Defending Europe and Deterring Russia — Prompting Diplomats to Warn That Washington Is Trying to Split NATO Into "the Good Ones and the Bad Ones"
In early October 2026, the Trump administration organized a Pentagon-led NATO working group — reported as the "Bergen Group" — to meet in Poland and discuss the alliance's future, and it excluded some of NATO's most important members. Invited were Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Left out were the United Kingdom and France — two of Europe's leading military powers and nuclear states — and the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, the frontline states most exposed to Russia and among the alliance's most active defense contributors relative to their size. Allied diplomats were confused and alarmed, questioning Washington's criteria and warning against carving the alliance into tiers. "If they try splitting NATO into the good ones and the bad ones, it is dangerous for the US," one diplomat said. "But for Europe, this is existential." The exclusion of exactly the countries that do the most to deter Russian aggression — and the elevation of a hand-picked subset in their place — fits a documented pattern in Trump's foreign policy of straining the Western alliances that are America's greatest strategic advantage, in ways that serve Moscow's long-standing goal of a divided NATO.