NATO reeling from Trump reality show
Chaos at diplomacy talks
BRUSSELS, May 27, (Agencies): US President Donald Trump’s performance at a “shocking” NATO summit has dealt a major blow to the alliance and may hand a win to Vladimir Putin, analysts say.
Whether shoving aside Montenegro’s PM or having handshake wars with France’s new leader, Trump created chaos at what was meant to be a diplomatic showpiece.
But optics aside, Trump failed to publicly endorse NATO’s founding mutual defence guarantee and instead castigated the allies for failing to pay their way.
The contrast with an upbeat Mideast visit, including a trip to Saudi Arabia in which he did big deals with no mention of human rights concerns, was striking.
Ian Lesser of the German Marshall Fund think-tank in Brussels told AFP the failure to explicitly back the Article Five defence pledge “is going to be immensely disappointing to NATO leaders”.
In a bitter irony Trump’s rebuke to NATO came as he unveiled a memorial to 9/11, the only time that the Article Five defence guarantee has been triggered.
“This is a major blow to the alliance,” tweeted Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO.
“After calling NATO ‘obsolete’ Trump needed to say what every predecessor since Truman has said: The US is committed to Art 5.”
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It was under president Harry Truman that the United States launched the post-war World War II network of alliances in Asia and Europe with the establishment in particular of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
On the campaign trail Trump worried transatlantic allies when he dismissed NATO as ‘obsolete’, and said he would weigh up whether a state triggering Article 5 if invaded had met its financial obligations.
But hopes that post-election Trump would use his first visit to Brussels to show his full commitment were dashed with a series of awkward incidents and harsh statements.
First he stared down new French President Emmanuel Macron during a white-knuckle handshake. Then he shoved aside Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, whose country is set to become NATO’s 29th member later this year.
Meanwhile, Poland’s defence minister said Friday he was confident about US President Donald Trump’s commitment to NATO amid doubts raised by his failure to publicly endorse the alliance’s guarantee of collective defence.
But Polish Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz told public broadcaster TVP Friday that he had “heard” Trump at talks held behind closed doors and “had no doubt that the US will absolutely respect Article 5 and the troop commitments they have made” on NATO’s eastern flank.
“It was very clearly said that the US is committed to NATO and to security on its eastern flank,” Macierewicz added.
Russia on Friday accused NATO of increasing the threat of conflict, insisting attempts by the US-led alliance to curb Moscow have left ties at their lowest ebb since the USSR collapsed.
“At present NATO-Russian relations are at their worst since the end of the Cold War,” the foreign ministry in Moscow said in a statement.
The ministry said NATO was pursuing a policy of “containment” towards Russia that has seen it bolster its forces along the country’s border in eastern Europe.
“The direct consequence is the increase in the potential for conflict in Euro-Atlantic region,” it said.
The broadside from Moscow came a day after NATO leaders met in Brussels.
Footage of US President Donald Trump appearing to push aside Montenegro’s prime minister at the NATO summit were being relished Friday by those opposed to the Balkan country joining the military alliance.
Caught on camera, the incident showed Trump making his way to the front of a lineup of leaders for a NATO family portrait, pushing past Montenegro’s Dusko Markovic at Thursday’s summit in Brussels.
The apparent snub took place on the eve of Montenegro formally becoming NATO’s 29th member in a move bitterly opposed by Russia, with the incident leapt upon by the country’s pro-Russian opposition.