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Brussels. The biggest threat to Europe now comes from an unexpected place.
The headache is called Donald Trump.
When the NATO summit is launched today in a police case in Brussels, everyone is confronted by an angry American president. Although the anger is not completely lost this time.
In the taxi, I can say that there are several police officers in every corner of downtown Brussels and around the headquarters of NATO. All to protect the US president who landed last night. But the question is who can protect Europe against Trump.
Normally, the annual NATO summit is a well-named event, denouncing the unity of the Alliance against external threats, notably from Russia
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Before the meeting, Trump has already fanned the sentiments with a letter to those European leaders whose countries do not contribute to NATO with military spending of at least two percent of GDP.
Many fear a repetition of what happened In Canada, in June, Trump, by Twitter, withdraws his signature from the final document and insulted the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. The American president is like a time bomb that can explode anytime
Indrivare
This is not the requirement in itself to thwart the other NATO countries without the tone in which it is conducted. Trump appears more or less like a collector who will get his money. It threatens that the United States does not follow the bases on which NATO rests, that an attacked country be defended by the others.
Trump's tone recalls what powerful leaders usually use against their enemies. This is not a language that usually uses friends, even though the speech was high even among other presidents.
– You must start paying your bills, Trump recently said at a Montana election meeting with the European leader. he has strangely merged military spending with the trade war that he himself launched, claiming that Europe "kills the United States with its homework."
Europe and the United States have been allies since the Second World War. . But with Trump at the helm, it's no longer an obvious world order. The main impression is that he wants to demolish the other and replace it with something else.
While being directly hostile to democratic leaders like Justin Trudeau and Angela Merkel, he is in gold with dictators like Kim Jong-un of North Korea and an authoritarian leader like Vladimir Putin
– the only one in the world. NATO is four years old I do not think we can handle eight, says a former NATO ambassador quoted in the New York Times.
For Donald Trump, everything seems to be a question of money. He thinks the US is carrying too much burden on NATO spending. He sees NATO as an organization primarily for the protection of Europe and has trouble seeing what the United States gets out of it. Although he no longer calls him "overshadowed" as in his first presidency period, he undermines confidence in NATO and its deterrent effect against enemies.
Questioned
Europe's response has been to invest more in defense cooperation. This may be necessary if the Trumps line continues to apply in the United States. But as long as NATO exists, it becomes a partially inefficient double command.
Trump is not the first US president to ask Europe to pay more for NATO spending. But he is the only one to make it an open confrontation. Although more and more countries are getting closer to the goal of 2%
One of the reasons that many European countries reduced their defense spending a few years ago is the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The same threat to Europe was no longer visible. Many have even questioned the existence of the military alliance
The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States and the aggressive attitude of Russia in its neighborhood culminating with l 39; annexation of Crimea in 2014 ended this alliance. Almost all countries increased their defense spending
Humiliating
When Trump came to power, only four of the 29 countries achieved the two percent goal. This year, there are eight and seven more promises to reach your 2024. It's in the right direction.
Regarding military spending, Trump is right.
Europe's member states should pay their share. But the likelihood that he will get Germany, for example, to get there by publicly humbling Chancellor Merkel is not great. On the other hand, Trump gives a chance to show his electorate that he is working on his promises
Meetings like that of Brussels were previously a demonstration of the strength and unity of the West, but at that time, it will probably dig deeper trenches. ] This is Wolfgang Hansson 00:29
