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The UK just might be on the verge of a Brexit-style rethink of its Nato membership

The sovereignty argument that was used to some effect by the Brexiteers is equally, if not more, relevant to our allegiance to the treaty organisation

Mary Dejevsky
Thursday 28 November 2019 18:40 GMT
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Boris Johnson and Donald Trump at the UN headquarters in New York
Boris Johnson and Donald Trump at the UN headquarters in New York

Earlier this autumn, a former British minister offered this reassurance to an international audience in Latvia concerned about UK defence engagement after Brexit. The UK might be leaving the European Union, he said, but Britons had always had misgivings about EU membership. They had never had any such doubts about membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).

Which got me thinking. What if the spotlight were to fall on the UK’s Nato membership in the same way as it has fallen for so many years on our EU membership. What then?

In just less than a week, London – or rather a secluded hotel in Hertfordshire – will host a Nato summit. It will bring together the 29 members of the alliance, celebrate the organisation’s 70th anniversary and consider directions for the future. At almost any other time, such a gathering of international leaders would be flaunted as a feather in the UK’s diplomatic cap. That is not quite how it looks now.

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