NATO summit seeks return to gravitas with Biden
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[June 11, 2021] By
Robin Emmott
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - NATO leaders will seek
reassurance on Monday from U.S. President Joe Biden that after four
years of denigration by his predecessor Donald Trump, the alliance can
count on the support of the United States, its most powerful member.
In a more pared-back gathering than past NATO summits in part due to
COVID-19 restrictions, without fighter jet fly-pasts, the 30 allies will
gather in their glass and steel headquarters to agree reforms for a
multipolar, post-Cold War world where China's military rise presents a
new challenge.
"The first thing is for Biden to recommit to NATO's collective defence,"
Jamie Shea, a former senior NATO official who was at a 2018 summit at
which Trump considered quitting the alliance. "It just shows just how
easy it would have been for the United States to turn its back on the
alliance," said Shea, now at the Friends of Europe think tank.
Trump brought a television reality-show quality to the NATO summits he
attended from 2017 to 2019, experts and diplomats said, attracting huge
international media attention but also wearing down allies whom he
called "delinquent" for not spending enough on defence.
Biden has already annulled a Trump decision to pull U.S. troops out of
Germany.
While Biden is expected to deliver the traditional American message that
European allies must pay more towards their own security, NATO is
seeking to move beyond Trump's "America First" foreign policy.
"This summit with Biden should be a signal to the world that NATO is
back," said a senior European NATO diplomat who was also at the alliance
during the Trump years.
"There was so much noise and it was a difficult time. But now we can
actually talk about the things that matter, the defining security
challenges of our time," the envoy said.
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U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks during a visit at
Tidewater Community College in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S. May 3, 2021.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Founded in 1949 to contain a military threat from the Soviet Union, NATO
celebrated its 70th anniversary at a summit in London in December 2019 and
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has argued that the transatlantic bond is in
fine health, despite headline-grabbing squabbles.
Russia, climate change, Afghanistan and new technologies are on the menu of the
day-long summit, which will culminate in a special leaders' session in the
amphitheatre-like North Atlantic Council chamber.
But having strengthened its capability to carry out its core mission of
defending Europe following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, NATO now faces
pressure to be more ambitious.
In a twist of fate, the NATO summit will discuss reforms to the alliance, known
as NATO 2030, which were set in motion after Trump questioned its relevance.
Stoltenberg will set out nine areas where NATO could modernise over the medium
term, including more joint allied funding of military operations. However,
France has already expressed concern about the proposal, fearing it will take
money away from national military priorities.
Leaders are likely to agree to draw up a new master strategy document, known as
NATO's Strategic Concept, to include China's military rise as a challenge for
the first time.
(Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Giles Elgood)
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