Estonian lawmaker calls US questionnaire to NATO ‘unnecessary stress test’

MILAN — A Pentagon questionnaire sent to NATO allies to assess their support for the US administration has ruffled some feathers in Europe, with a senior Estonian lawmaker telling Breaking Defense it’s a “novel” but flawed strategy that could divide the alliance and give adversaries an opening to exploit.

Bloomberg first reported on the document on Aug. 14, saying that it included questions about governments’ public support for US policy, their level of engagement with US defense contractors and their position on the use of US military bases in-country, including whether use of the bases was allowed for Iran conflict operations. The questionnaire was reportedly linked to the ongoing US force posture review for the continent.

“It is an unnecessary stress test and way to handle this,” Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Estonian Parliament, told Breaking Defense this week. “To do your review on force posture, you can handle it in a way that serves both US national interests and those of allied countries. I don’t see the questionnaire as doing or serving this.”

It is not unusual for NATO countries to receive questionnaires, Mihkelson said, but they usually come from NATO headquarters rather than being sent unilaterally by one nation. Still, news of the survey was not a huge surprise, he said, considering “the way the current [US] administration there handles things.”

The Estonian lawmaker added that a better approach would have been to raise these issues at a NATO North Atlantic Council (NAC) meeting, where every ally sends one or more leaders to discuss the alliance’s collective security decisions. Mihkelson said he hasn’t personally seen the questionnaire, but said he understands it requires answers by Aug. 27, when the next NAC meeting is expected to take place at NATO’s headquarters in Brussels and be attended by the US Under Secretary for Defense Policy Elbridge Colby.

Bloomberg and Al Jazeera reported that some current European officials have criticized the questionnaire, though most appear to be taking a more circumspect public approach. A NATO official confirmed to Breaking Defense that Washington is working with allies on its force posture review but deferred to US authorities on specifics regarding the document.

A spokesperson for the Norwegian Ministry of Defense told Breaking Defense that they were informed at the ministerial meeting in Brussels in June that such a request would be forthcoming and that they were “reviewing the questions and will respond to the US on the issues raised.”

The Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in a press conference on Monday that he did not view the US move “as pressure, [as] it is the way the current US administration operates,” according to a Bloomberg report.

Additionally, a spokesperson for the German Ministry of Defense said in an email to Breaking Defense that Berlin “has also been invited by the US to take part in its force posture review.”

The spokesperson added that it has provided the European country with an opportunity “to continue its already close and trusting dialogue with the US” on common defense policy interests.

Several other NATO nations did not respond to a request for comment.

One vocal critic was Ivo Daalder, former US ambassador to NATO from 2009 to 2013. He said on X that the questionnaire “puts fealty above common interests, divides allies among themselves, weakens collective defense, and ultimately could destroy NATO.”

A US official declined to directly address the questionnaire but told Breaking Defense, “President [Donald] Trump has made clear his deep disappointment about NATO allies’ lack of support throughout Operation Epic Fury, which is making the entire world safer by denuclearizing Iran.

“The United States has thousands of troops stationed in Europe to protect Europe, but requests to use NATO bases during this conflict were denied,” the official said. “The United States expects to be able to use its bases in Europe to advance global and European, security.”

An unnamed senior European defense official pushed back on that logic on Wednesday, telling Al Jazeera, “This administration has been confusing NATO topics with unilateral US military operations. … This questionnaire also reflects this confusion. NATO has nothing to do with the Middle East.”

In the meantime, as European capitals weigh how to answer America’s queries, Mihkelson said other capitals will be watching closely: Moscow and Beijing.

“It is critically important for us in this time, a time of not living in peace time, with a major war waging in Europe, that both in words and deeds to not make any steps to create an image that would indicate to Moscow or Beijing that NATO is not united or focused on deterring threats growing on our borders,” he said. “This is critical to avoid a miscalculation by either of those countries on visible division lines.”

Ashley Roque contributed to this report.