If US President-elect Donald Trump follows through on his promise to cooperate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Europe and NATO face a bleak future, Bloomberg columnist Max Hastings wrote.

He said Joe Biden would likely be the last president to view European security as vital, even paramount, to the US. The strategic standoff with China will dominate Washington policy for years to come.

“Europe is preparing for a new life, almost certainly further removed from the US than at any time since Pearl Harbor in December 1941. While it will likely be many months before we know the details – how deep the strategic divide between the continents might become – the big picture is clear,” the columnist wrote.

EU members are currently spending shockingly little on their own security, he noted. Only the countries of Eastern Europe, primarily Poland, and the countries of Northern Europe are sharply increasing their defense spending “in the face of Russian aggression.”