NATO, show of unity amid unease
BRUSSELS — NATO and the European Union made a public show of unity Tuesday in the face of criticism from Donald Trump, hailing their deepening co-operation as the U.S. president-elect insists European allies start pulling their own military weight.
In the presence of EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, NATO foreign ministers endorsed more than 40 proposals for boosting co-operation on cybersecurity, sea operations, and helping neighbouring countries better defend themselves.
“Today, we really mark a milestone in our effort to build co-operation,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters during a break in a two-day meeting in Brussels.
Trump lambasted European nations during his presidential campaign for not investing enough in defence and said he wants NATO to do more to combat terrorism. Fewer than half a dozen of the 22 allies in the EU spend 2 per cent of their gross domestic product annually on defence, a threshold target set by NATO.
The United States, by far NATO’s biggest funder, has for years demanded its partners to spend more, but Trump’s heated and unpredictable rhetoric has unsettled many allies.
They are also wary of Trump’s uncritical view of Vladimir Putin even as the Russian president makes more assertive use of his armed forces in Europe.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, appearing at his last NATO ministerial meeting, agreed that “unity is very, very important” for the defence alliance.
“We need to come together, to make sure there is a strong Europe, a strong NATO and that the values and the interests that we all share, we are continuing to work on together,” Kerry told reporters.
The Brussels meeting was aimed in part at reassuring the incoming U.S. administration that European allies are spending more and that the world’s biggest military alliance is already doing plenty to combat terrorism.
Indeed, some allies are waiting for Trump to spell out exactly what more he believes they can do.
Despite doubts about what the future holds, Stoltenberg said he is “absolutely certain that the United States will remain committed to the trans-Atlantic bond, will remain committed to NATO and will live up to ... the security guarantees to Europe.”
While NATO and the EU have 22 common members, co-operation between them has been hindered by different visions over which organization should have primacy in defence matters.
“It is a very good thing if countries talk about other arrangements for their security and their defence, but that should not in any way undermine NATO,” British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said.
Of the 42 proposals, one-quarter deal with countering so-called “hybrid threats” such as propaganda, political and economic interference, or disguising trained military personnel as militias. Others involve better co-ordinating NATO and EU crisis responses, and studying whether to conduct joint and co-ordinated military exercises. But they remain proposals, and nothing concrete in terms of defence programs were on the table.