‘Refreshing and strange,’ Trump’s demands drive wedge into NATO
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Donald Trump’s fractious first meeting with NATO has left European allies wondering where the military alliance goes next, according to diplomats in Brussels who held a postmortem on the US president’s visit.
After apparently moderating his stance toward an organization he once dismissed as obsolete, Trump used last week’s meeting to publicly denounce Europe’s low defense spending while also surprising many NATO leaders present by urging them to focus on illegal immigration.
Many at NATO headquarters are now unsure of the alliance’s future direction under Trump, according to seven current and former alliance diplomats, some of whom attended Tuesday’s debriefing at NATO’s inner sanctum, the North Atlantic Council.
“Trump showed we have fundamental differences about what NATO is for,” said one senior European NATO diplomat. “NATO is designed to defend the territory of its members, not stop terrorism or immigration. We are heading in opposite directions.”
A second diplomat described Trump’s style, which revealed the limits of negotiating in advance with US diplomats and even with such senior figures as Defense Secretary James Mattis, as both “refreshing” because it was direct, but also as “very strange.”
The president’s criticism, the envoy said, carried risks for the United States by turning off Europe from NATO, sentiments already expressed by Germany and Norway.
At the dinner that followed Thursday’s summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was visibly displeased by Trump’s NATO speech but did not challenge him, two diplomats who were present said. However, after a further couple of days with Trump at a G-7 summit, she warned Europeans that the meetings had shown her they could not entirely count on “others” and must “take our fate into our own hands.”
A NATO official dismissed concerns about Europe losing US protection, saying Thursday’s meeting had been a success. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters immediately afterwards that Trump had sent “a strong signal” of support during his first visit to the alliance headquarters.
Founded to deter the Soviet threat in 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is based on deep cooperation with the United States, which provides for Europe’s security with its nuclear and conventional arsenals. NATO has found renewed purpose since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, sending battalions to the Baltics and Poland to deter any potential Russian incursions.
Under a decision taken by Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, US forces and weaponry are returning to Eastern Europe in larger numbers than at any time since the end of the Cold War. But Trump’s call for NATO to be on the front line against Islamic militants is more difficult for an alliance now wary of complex conflicts after more than a decade in Afghanistan.
Trump wants to see NATO taking a bigger role in the 68-member, US-led coalition against Islamic State. France and Germany have resisted, worried that the western alliance’s presence might irk Arab members of the coalition and NATO could be pushed into another open-ended foreign assignment.