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Russia’s bloody daylight missile attack on kyiv and other Ukrainian cities on Monday, which also hit a Children’s cancer hospitalprovided a dire backdrop to the 75th anniversary summit of NATO now taking place in Washington. An organisation created in 1949 to ensure lasting peace in Europe still faces the greatest threat to European security since its founding. The war in Ukraine is both a challenge to the alliance and a confirmation of the need for its continued existence. But the summit’s results look set to be disappointing.
The risks for the organization, unfortunately, are not all external. The Washington summit is overshadowed by Health concerns Remarks by 81-year-old President Joe Biden have raised the possibility of Donald Trump returning to the White House. The dominant NATO member could soon be led by a president who could cut off US aid to Ukraine and, while not completely removing the US security umbrella, demand that European members shoulder a much larger share of the burden of their own security.
Other leaders of key NATO members, such as France, Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Olaf Scholz, meanwhile, are battling rising populism that could limit their ability to further increase defence spending. Britain, whose new Labour prime minister Sir Keir Starmer arrived in Washington on the back of a Landslide electoral victorySuddenly Starmer looks like a bastion of moderation, but he finds himself caught between intense fiscal restraint and exhortations from military chiefs to reverse the depletion of one of NATO’s most capable militaries.
If part of the task of the Washington summit is to make the alliance Trump-proof, it appears it will fail to achieve this. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg tried to gather a multiannual financing package for military aid to Ukraine, but the allies have only agreed 40 billion euros over the next year.
Major steps will be taken to “NATOize” aid and training for Ukraine, making greater use of the alliance’s resources. NATO will take over coordination of arms donations and ammunition deliveries from the 57-nation “Ramstein” group. NATO military command in WiesbadenGermany will become a planning centre for training and equipping Ukrainian troops. The United States and other countries have pledged further vital aid. air defense systems and weapons to Kyiv.
But on the central issue of Ukraine’s future NATO membership, the language used is unlikely to represent much progress from last year’s vague statement that the alliance would extend an invitation to Kiev to join “once allies agree and conditions are met.” Admitting that Ukraine is not on the agenda today could bring NATO itself into conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia. However, it should be possible to issue an invitation now that would put Kiev on track to join soon after the conflict is over.
NATO to announce 23 of 32 members meeting spending target at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense, up from just three percent a decade ago. European members and Canada have together dramatically increased spending. However, given Russia’s growing aggression, a 2.5 percent target – met by Just a handful of NATO members—now seems more appropriate.
In Moscow, a formal visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same day that Russian missiles hit Kiev suggested that President Vladimir Putin still has leaders beyond the West who are prepared to deal with itThe fact that Russia’s formal alliances, however, are with autocracies such as Belarus and North Korea offers a stark contrast to the spectacle of 32 NATO allies, plus Asia-Pacific democracies such as Japan and Australia, celebrating 75 years of their joint project. NATO nations still have formidable economic and military power at their disposal, but they need to harness it.