NATO tries to protect itself against a possible return of Donald Trump to the United States | International

The Republican candidate for the US presidential election, Donald Trump, was far from Washington – campaigning in his home state of Florida and where on Thursday night he welcomed the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. Despite this geographical distance, its shadow continued to influence the deliberations of allies at the NATO summit held in the US capital this week…

The Republican candidate for the US presidential election, Donald Trump, was far from Washington – campaigning in his resident state of Florida and where on Thursday night he welcomed the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban. Despite this geographical distance, at the NATO summit held in the US capital this week, its shadow continued to influence the deliberations of the allies. Concerns about a possible 180-degree change in US foreign policy in the event of the former president’s victory in the November presidential elections, heightened by uncertainty about President Joe Biden’s physical conditions, underpinned a series of steps adopted by NATO leaders to safeguard aid to Ukraine and protect the alliance from possible political shocks if a former president who is highly critical of the organization returns.

During their three-day summit, the 32 countries have declared Ukraine’s path to membership in the alliance “irreversible” and announced a shipment of new air defense material and F-16 aircraft. They have also agreed on measures that transfer control and coordination of the aid, so far more or less overseen by the United States, to NATO. A command based in Germany will be responsible for managing the training, planning and coordination of the aid, which will be delivered to Kiev via Slovakia, Romania and Poland.

The allies have also signed a commitment to strengthen and coordinate their defense industries, aimed primarily at giving Europe greater self-sufficiency in weapons in case the United States, the organization’s largest partner, reduces its contribution. Among other agreements, Germany, France, Italy and Poland have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a new long-range ground-launched cruise missile.

And he has repeatedly reiterated that most members, 23, meet the minimum spending target of 2% of their GDP on defense, and the rest have plans to reach it in the coming years. One of Trump’s great fixations regarding the alliance is that partners reach and even exceed that goal.

What might happen in U.S. policy toward NATO was a big topic in Washington’s convention center circles and debates among experts. During the three-day summit, every interview with leaders or their ministers included a question about Biden’s physical and mental strength, amid calls by legislators in his own party for him to resign to run for re-election. More or less unadorned, the answer — with a few Hungarian exceptions — was an invariable “He’s in good shape.”

Likewise, the standard answers to questions about a possible Trump return range from “we’ll see” to “the coalition is solid, a change of government won’t change anything.”

The policies of both candidates were clearly highlighted throughout the summit. In his press conference at the conclusion of the summit, Biden defended NATO, saying, “A strong NATO is fundamental to American security interests.” The Democrat presented himself as “the most qualified candidate” to defend that fortress and ensure that Ukraine prevails against Russian aggression.

End the war “in 24 hours”

Trump, for his part, has declared on several occasions that he would end the war “within 24 hours” if he returned to the presidency. In his meeting with Orban at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, the two addressed the alleged peace plan for Ukraine. “We discuss ways to achieve peace. Good news of the day: he is going to fix it! ”said the Hungarian Prime Minister in a message on social networks with a photo of the two. In turn, the Republican also reacted on the networks. “Thank you, Victor. There must be peace, and quickly.”

This week, at a rally in the wealthy neighborhood of Doral on the outskirts of Miami, the former president was once again highly critical of the alliance and its members. “I didn’t have much idea what NATO was before I became president,” he insisted. “But it didn’t take me long to find out, like two minutes. And the first thing I realized was that they didn’t pay. We paid almost all of NATO. And I said that’s unfair.” The Republican candidate repeated his threat not to honor Article 5, the mutual defense clause, if any country not meeting the defense spending objective of no more than 2% of GDP was attacked.

The candidate later backed down. In an interview with Fox News Radio, he denied that he plans — as has been raised more than once during his tenure — to remove the United States from NATO. He argued, “No, I want (the rest of the partners) to pay their own defense bills.”

Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says he is not concerned about the United States’ commitment to the alliance if Trump wins in November. As he noted, the alliance has the support of a majority of legislators in the U.S. Congress and most NATO members meet spending objectives.

Trump’s allies have also sought to assuage doubts about what would happen if the real estate tycoon returned to the White House. At an event on the sidelines of the summit, Republican Senator Thom Tillis, co-chair of the NATO observer group in the US upper house, insisted that Trump is not considering leaving the alliance, and described the candidate’s rhetoric as mere election posturing. “This is not a real threat,” he insisted, adding, “Let’s be clear: This is not something that is being considered.”

Others were more skeptical. Trump has said he would end the war in 24 hours, and he would end it before his inauguration. Nobody knows what that means. We can be pretty sure it won’t happen, because (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has no intention of ending the war in 24 hours, no matter what happens,” said Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO at the Center for European Policy Analysis.

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