The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) celebrated this Thursday 75 years since its foundingwith a ceremony in Brussels that included a call for transatlantic unity, one of the alliance’s main concerns.
At the headquarters of the NATOin the Belgian capital, the ministers of Foreign relations of the 32 countries They gave short speeches, cut a cake and celebrated the achievements of the powerful military alliance but without forgetting the threats that stalk it.
In his speech for the anniversary, the secretary general of the alliance, the Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg, referred to one of those concerns, referring to a distance between Europe and the United States in matters of Defense and security.
“I do not believe in the United States alone, in the same way that I do not believe in a Europe alone. I believe in the United States and Europe together in the NATObecause together we are stronger and safer,” he said.
In his vision, Europe “needs the United States for its security.
But the United States, Stoltenberg added, “also needs Europe,” because European countries provide “a vast intelligence network and a unique diplomatic influence, which amplifies American power.”
“Through the NATO“The United States has more friends and more allies than any other great power in the world,” he noted.
An eventual return of Donald Trump to the US presidency is one of the great uncertainties hanging over the powerful military alliance, in addition to the prolonged war in Ukraine.
Russia’s war against Ukraine marked a before and after for the NATOan organization that Stoltenberg defined as “the most powerful, enduring and successful alliance in history.”
That conflict made the NATO put aside its divisions, close ranks on the side of Ukraine, add two more countries to the bloc (Sweden and Finland) and strengthen its eastern flank, closer to Russia.
Alliance countries have already sent kyiv tens of billions of dollars in aid in military equipment and weapons.
However, the contribution of the NATOespecially that coming from the United States, has lost momentum, which has caused Ukrainian forces to take a defensive position on the front lines.
Given this scenario, Stoltenberg promotes the creation of a gigantic fund of 100 billion euros (about 108 billion dollars) in the next five years to guarantee support for Ukraine.
Stoltenberg also pushes for NATO as an organization to participate more directly in the coordination of deliveries of military equipment to the Ukrainian forces.
– Race against the clock –
The urgency of Stoltenberg, officials of the NATOobeys two essential aspects.
On the one hand, his mandate at the head of the military alliance ends on October 1. On the other hand, there is the uncertainty that it represents for the NATO Trump’s eventual return to the White House after the November elections.
When he was president, Trump unleashed a huge crisis in the military alliance by openly questioning those countries that were not up to date in their financial contributions and defense spending.
In his new campaign for the White House, Trump once again caused tremors in European capitals by stating that he would encourage Russia to do “whatever it wants” with countries that do not invest what was agreed upon in defense.
Those words were considered a direct attack on the central pillar on which the transatlantic alliance is based: the reciprocal defense clause of its members if one of its members is attacked.
In response, the military alliance was quick to launch a strong campaign for member countries to invest at least 2% of their respective GDPs in defense.
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If in 2014 only three countries in the NATO reached that level of military spending, the alliance hopes to close this year with at least 20 countries in that situation.
British diplomat David Cameron said on Wednesday that “the best way to prepare for the US election, whatever the outcome,” is to get “all of us spending more than 2% of GDP on defence.”