Overview
- The planned Poland meeting is a small-format NATO working group led by Pentagon policy chief Elbridge Colby that follows earlier Bergen-style talks meant to develop ideas for the full alliance.
- Reporting shows Britain, France and the Baltic states were not invited to the Poland session, prompting frustrated diplomats to ask what criteria guided the guest list.
- Invited countries defend the format as preparatory work, but several diplomats warn selective invitations risk dividing NATO into favored and sidelined members and weakening collective deterrence.
- The White House and Pentagon declined to comment to reporters about the meeting and the invitation decisions, while U.S. officials have publicly pushed a reward-and-punish approach to allies.
- U.S. planners may consider adding Denmark next after a U.S.-Denmark deal on an expanded American footprint in Greenland, a development diplomats say links invitations to bilateral cooperation.