US in confidential talks to expand NATO nuclear sharing beyond its six host states

US officials have signalled openness to expanding NATO's nuclear-sharing arrangement to more European members, the Financial Times reported on June 2, citing three people briefed on the strictly confidential discussions. The talks focus on the dual-capable aircraft (DCA) program, under which allied air groups fly American F-35, F-15 and Tornado jets configured to deliver US B61 nuclear bombs, with Washington retaining sole authority over their use. The bombs are currently stored and guarded by American troops in six countries -- Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom -- under a Cold War-era scheme that lets non-nuclear members share in alliance nuclear policy without acquiring their own weapons. Two sources said the expansion is meant to demonstrate continued US commitment to the nuclear umbrella even as allies are pushed to shoulder more of the conventional defence burden.

Countries on NATO's eastern flank, particularly Poland and the Baltic states, have been the most active in seeking to host the aircraft. Warsaw has publicly campaigned for US weapons on Polish soil; former president Andrzej Duda called for extending the DCA mission to Poland, and Poland has also joined a French-led effort to explore relocating part of Europe's deterrent to allied territory. Because the Baltic states have no combat aircraft of their own -- their airspace is policed by NATO -- they could instead host US Air Force F-35As permanently. One person familiar with the talks cautioned that an agreement was "not expected in the near future" and might produce no formal change.

The discussions are unfolding against acute European anxiety over Donald Trump's decisions to cancel planned weapons deployments and pull troops from the continent as part of a pivot toward Asia. In early May Washington said it would withdraw at least 5,000 troops from Germany and signalled it would cancel a long-range-strike task force promised to Berlin in July 2024, even as it confirmed the arrival of a 5,000-strong US Army brigade in Poland. The nuclear talks follow late-May reporting that the US plans to halve its deep-strike capability in Europe and will propose an accelerated troop withdrawal at the June NATO summit. Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last month that "the overall deterrence and defence in Europe has to stay the same," warning that any attack on the alliance would meet a "devastating" response.

The reporting also tracks a broader European debate. President Emmanuel Macron has floated extending France's nuclear umbrella to other states, an idea Belgium, Poland, Latvia and Estonia have publicly backed, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz confirmed European deterrence talks at the Munich Security Conference but said Berlin remained committed to NATO's joint nuclear framework and opposed creating uneven security zones. France and the United Kingdom are Europe's only nuclear powers, holding roughly 400 warheads between them against about 1,670 in the US arsenal; the British deterrent depends on American supply chains, while France produces its own warheads. Any expansion would run counter to the 1997 NATO-Russia Founding Act, in which the alliance committed not to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of its newer members.