US Refuses to Rule Out Falklands Shift in Defence Spending Row
A senior American official said withdrawing US support for British sovereignty over the Falklands is “not ruled out” as leverage in pushing allies towards NATO’s 5 per cent spending pledge, with the UK singled out for “special attention” — days after the Treasury confirmed the Budget will set no date for the 3 per cent target. The government called its support for the islands “unwavering”; Downing Street has insisted sovereignty is “not in question”.
Allies have argued about burden-sharing for seventy years, but putting the Falklands on the table — even as an unruled-out hypothetical from an unnamed official — crosses a line British governments have treated as unthinkable: the alliance’s guarantees becoming conditional on invoices. The timing is surgical, landing on the weekend Mr Healey’s shelved target dominates the papers, and it echoes April’s leaked Pentagon email making the same threat over Iran-war support — a pattern, not a slip. For Buenos Aires, merely hearing Washington muse aloud is a diplomatic gift. The government’s “unwavering” is the only possible answer and everyone knows it answers nothing. Watch whether the White House disowns the briefing — and what the Budget’s defence line now says under this pressure.