The Financial Times (FT) cited four unnamed European officials to report that "European military powers work on 5-10 year plan to replace US in Nato."

The UK, France, Germany and the Nordic nations are named in the report as wanting to present this proposal to the US during the next NATO Summit in June.

FT also reported that some countries have refused to participate in these talks, either out of fear that this could encourage the US to move faster in this regard or due to their belief that it won't abandon Europe.

FT is likely referring to Poland, the Baltic States and Romania, the most important countries on NATO's eastern flank, all of which prefer to remain under the US security umbrella.

Poland's recent flirtation with France could herald a full-blown pivot if the ruling liberal-globalists win May's presidential election, but for now, it functions as an attempt to rebalance ties with the US amid uncertainty over its future plans. It can also be seen as a misguided negotiation tactic to keep and expand the US military presence.

As for the Baltic States, they have a diehard pro-American elite and they'll only realign toward the EU in the event that they're forced to do so by Trump unilaterally curtailing or even totally removing US troops from their territories as part of a grand deal with Russia.

Meanwhile, Romania notably rebuffed France's proposal to extend its nuclear umbrella over the rest of the continent, which can be interpreted as placing more faith in the US than in Europe in the scenario of a crisis with Russia over Moldova.

If these five countries continue perceiving their national interests in these ways, which would require Poland's ruling liberal-globalists not to pivot to France if they win the presidency (their opponents are comparatively more pro-US), then an intra-NATO European rift would emerge.

France and Germany, which are competing amongst themselves and with Poland for leadership of post-conflict Europe, could then find their envisaged influence over Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) challenged by the US.

From Estonia down to Romania and possibly as far as Bulgaria and even Greece, the penultimate of which pivoted to the US long ago against the will of its Russophilic population, while the last needs the US to keep Turkey's maritime claims at bay, NATO's eastern flank would fall under US influence.