NATO’s faith in U.S. wanes as London summit nears

BRUSSELS — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo headed into meetings at NATO on Wednesday amid questions about U.S. leadership in the military alliance and whether it will even continue to be a member.

Pompeo’s conversations with foreign ministers at the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization aim to lay the groundwork for a higherlevel meeting of presidents and prime ministers scheduled for next month in London.

Once pretty staid affairs, NATO gatherings nowadays are infused with melodrama and cliffhanging uncertainty about global challenges and the willingness of the United States to aid its allies. Diplomats were particularly unnerved by the U.S. decision last month to withdraw troops from northern Syria before a Turkish invasion, without consulting the Europeans in advance.

Testimony by State Department officials at the impeachment hearings in Washington has also made some of his own diplomats question Pompeo’s strength of purpose, while a growing number of European diplomats say they believe he ultimately yields to President Trump’s wishes even if he considers them unwise.

Pompeo entered his first meeting, with the Romanian foreign minister, shortly before Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, began testifying in the impeachment inquiry.

Concern about the use of NATO is nothing new, but criticisms about the alliance that were once largely expressed behind the scenes are being aired more openly as the London summit approaches. Leaders are steeling themselves for another public thrashing from Trump, who suggested at last year’s summit that the United States may withdraw from the alliance if European governments don’t spend more on defence.

In the run-up to London, French President Emmanuel Macron told the Economist magazine that NATO may become obsolete — “what we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO,” he said — because the United States seems to be “turning its back on us.”

Pompeo sought to soothe the worries during a visit to Germany early this month, extolling NATO as “one of the most critical, strategic partnerships in all of recorded history.”

Only France has publicly aired its complaints. But Ivo Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a former U.S. ambassador to NATO, said several European officials have told him they fear the United States will not live up to its commitment to mutual defence embedded in Article 5, invoked only once in history, after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

“You don’t want to ask questions about fidelity if you want to stick in the marriage,” Daalder said. “Other countries say they’re worried, but they don’t ask because no one wants to know the answer.”

The draft schedule for the London summit suggests organizers are trying to limit the amount of time leaders will spend in each other’s company. There will be a reception with the queen, but no formal dinner afterward, and a working session at a luxury hotel and golf course outside London. “NATO summits used to be fairly boring, formulaic processes,” said Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Since the president openly questioned U.S. engagement with NATO, we approach all these leaders meetings with great trepidation.”