Column|Half of the political elite in Washington is panicking about President Joe Biden’s health, and the other half is hoping for a seeming failure from Biden at the NATO summit next week.
NATO countries leaders will gather in Washington next week to celebrate 75 years of NATO. However, the main focus of the meeting is whether the president of the United States will stay Joe Biden upright and awake.
Biden’s condition today is inevitably also interpreted as a symbol of the state of the West as a whole. It is appalling from NATO’s point of view that the management of NATO’s most central actor and largest military power is in very uncertain hands for the next few years. In the presidential election, there are two candidates facing each other, neither of whom is up to the task.
The fact that half of the Americans and also the power elite in Washington hope for nothing more than the collapse of Biden at the summit does not make the situation any easier for the European leaders who are fussing at the summit. American political culture, at least now, is not affected by the consideration of global responsibility or one’s own strategic position as a great power.
Biden is the host of the NATO meeting, which in itself is not a demanding task. Instead, it is difficult to communicate the vitality and unity of NATO to both the Americans and Russia and China at the same time.
The task of the leaders of the European NATO countries is to assure that Europe bears its responsibility in NATO. Assurance is done by showing that the member countries spend money on their own defense and also on the support of Ukraine, and it is not only the United States that pays.
NATO finally has results to show, for example, that defense budgets are growing. Now 23 countries out of 32 reach the two percent defense spending target. At the meeting in Washington, the goal is not yet raised, lest there be a disagreement.
They are trying to cover up the reasons for the distortion, although it should be clear that, for example, Ukraine is once again disappointed by what the NATO countries have to say about the prospect of membership. The United States and Germany are very reluctant, while Poland and the Baltic countries would send a membership invitation. It won’t happen, but the wording of the Ukraine declaration is still being discussed.
Attempts are being made to patch up Ukraine’s disappointment with money, weapons and better coordination of support. NATO is sending a new type of high representative to Kyiv. The fact that NATO takes a stronger role in coordinating support for Ukraine instead of the US-led Ramstein coalition is an attempt to reduce Donald Trump risks related to a possible return to power. The West is still an underperformer in defense industry investments.
NATO the paradox is that NATO is always in crisis. In Washington, however, a rare number of winged heads of state gather for a family portrait.
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The West is still an underperformer.
There are parliamentary elections in Britain on Thursday, and Germany is already in election mode. On Sunday, we will see if the president destroyed Emmanuel Macron the early election gamble of France’s old political system. If the extreme right wins, France may be led by a prime minister from the National Alliance, which is pro-Russia and pushed for a break from NATO.
However, France’s relationship with NATO has always been difficult. France emphasizes European defense more than relations with the United States. This was behind also in 1966, when the president Charles de Gaulle withdrew France from NATO’s military structure. France returned to it only in 2009.
of the United States and also France’s relationship and commitment to NATO is open again. This is despite the fact that both countries largely pursue their own interests through NATO in strengthening European security.
It would be a shame if France became NATO’s new Turkey – an active member country that messes up common issues. The United States, on the other hand, can make the entire NATO fall apart if it wants to.
It has been important and reasonable for Finland to significantly increase defense cooperation with the United States. Amidst all the uncertainty, unfortunately, the United States also increases the difficulty of predicting security policy.
The author is the editor-in-chief of HS.
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