NATO MARKS 75 YEARS OF ALLIANCE
Ministers from the bloc discuss more support for Ukraine
THE North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) yesterday marks 75 years since its founding, with the Western alliance confronted by the urgent need to do more to help Ukraine win a war currently roiling Europe.
Foreign ministers from Nato’s 32 countries held a ceremony at its headquarters here to fete the organisation that billed itself as the “most powerful and successful alliance in history”.
But, amid the cake-cutting and speeches, Nato is grappling with one of its most serious challenges since it emerged from the ashes of World War 2 in 1949 to counter the Soviet Union.
“As we celebrate Nato’s achievements, we do not rest upon them,” alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
“Europe now faces war on a scale we thought was resigned to history.”
Since Russia launched its allout invasion of Ukraine two years ago, a reinvigorated Nato had added Finland and Sweden to its ranks and bolstered its forces in eastern Europe.
Alliance members had also thrown their weight behind Kyiv, which was bidding to join Nato, by sending Ukraine weapons worth tens of billions of dollars.
But those supplies had dwindled as support from leading Nato power the United States remained stuck by political wrangling. On the frontline, Ukraine’s outgunned forces had been pushed onto the back foot.
In the face of surging Russian missile attacks on its infrastructure, Kyiv pleaded with its Western backers to send all the Patriot defence systems they can spare.
Stoltenberg, meanwhile, has proposed a €100 billion five-year fund in a bid to ensure long-term support for Ukraine.
He was also pushing to get Nato as an organisation more directly involved in coordinating deliveries, something the alliance had refused to do out of concern it could drag it closer to war with Russia.
Part of the urgency for the plan, officials said, was to try to protect support for Ukraine from the possible return of Donald Trump to the White House after US elections in November.
But there remained many questions over how any financing would work and how far Nato would be willing to go.
The volatile former US president had worried allies by criticising backing for Kyiv and he unleashed a political firestorm by saying he would “encourage” Russia to go after Nato allies who do not spend enough on defence.
That statement threatened to undermine Nato’s mutual defence clause that had underpinned European security for three-quarters of a century.
In response to Trump’s threat, the alliance had scrambled to showcase increased spending from European members.
This year, 20 Nato countries were expected to hit the target of spending two per cent of their gross domestic product on defence — up from just three nations in 2014.