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VIDEO – The US president is expected Wednesday in Brussels for a summit of NATO that he intends to use to settle his accounts with his allies.
Correspondent in Brussels
"Germany devotes 1 % of its GNP to NATO, we Americans pay 4% […]. Who can believe that it stands up? The United States is protecting Europe at great expense. In return they are beating on the trade. CA VA CHANGER! "
Everything is said, with a few shortcuts and a lot of about. No one can pretend that Europeans are not warned. It was tweet that Donald Trump announced the color on June 9, slamming the door of the G7 in the face of Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau. The summit of NATO, which opens today in Brussels, looks bad. "A real nightmare," warns a European official.
For the billionaire president, it is all about money and power, that we talk about the fate of free trade, China, Iran, Russia or collective defense. Of course, this will certainly be a matter of debate today at the Atlantic Alliance's new headquarters, even though the US President's partners continue to denounce the impropriety and confusion of genres. "Respect your allies, after all they are not so many," writes another Donald, the Polish Tusk, President of the European Council.
"We face a brutal power, which seeks to humiliate"
A G7 closed-door witness
At the Atlantic Alliance table, there will be additional intrigue. Donald Trump had left the G7 in bad terms to find all smiles Kim Jong-un, the former North Korean nuclear enemy finally portrayed as a dictator "very cunning, clever negotiator and anxious to do well." On Thursday, the US president will fly from Brussels at a hundred hours of a tête-à-tête with another strong man: Vladimir Putin. Washington did not bother to explain why. The president has raised the tension, leaving the White House: the meeting with the master of the Kremlin "could be easier" than the summit in Brussels. Are NATO allies concerned?
The Europeans' relationship with President Trump has steadily deteriorated since the June 9th Conclave. "At first we had questions. Now we have the answers, "says a senior diplomat. He mentions the successive setbacks of the EU on the climate, the Iranian nuclear deal and the prohibitive tariffs that Washington is starting to apply. The Twitter bubble burst and a reality is emerging every day more destabilizing, on all fronts.
In the eyes of the US President and the Republicans preparing the mid-term elections, Angela Merkel embodies the perfect scapegoat
The illusion has been torn apart by an American president with whom it is possible to compromise, says one official, witness of the closed session of the G7: "We face a brutal power, which seeks to humiliate. A more distant observer notes that the Old Continent does not know how to appease the Monster anymore. Give in to him? Or stand up to him? Europe, since its reconstruction, had never had to consider the United States as a hostile power.
It is Angela Merkel who, first, risks to pay the price. In the eyes of the US President and the Republicans preparing for the mid-term elections, the Chancellor is the perfect scapegoat: Germany continues to benefit at low cost from the US umbrella, while Mercedes and other BMWs that hit the 5th Avenue would come to dig the colossal deficit of the United States. In the G7, Donald Trump had resorted to the commercial argument to 100 billion dollars. At NATO, it will serve the military argument at 700 billion. The two are linked, at least in his mind: the collective defense clause would only be viable if everyone carries their share of the burden, economic and security.
»READ ALSO – Trump also attacks German automotive industry
The Europeans, sure of their right in the coming trade war, are advancing on a more difficult terrain on the question of national defense budgets. Nobody can compete with the Pentagon: it will receive this year the equivalent of 3.5% of US GDP, or $ 706 billion or nearly 3/4 of the military credits of the Western camp. The commitment of the United States remains truly global. But even with limited responsibility on their continent, the Europeans are slow to keep their promises.
On this side of the Atlantic, 7 of NATO's 26 allies – including the United Kingdom and Poland – will reach or this year will be close to 2% of GDP, a collective commitment made with George W. Bush, then renewed under Barack Obama. France is almost there with 1.81% in 2018. But despite the stated ambition to create a "pillar" of European defense in the service of NATO and the EU, none of the other major countries presupposed approach to the goal. Neither Germany (1.24), nor Italy (1.15), nor Spain (0.9), let alone Benelux. Today, Donald Trump will still have something to feed tweets and settle accounts.
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