The abrupt change of the American position regarding the war in Ukraine has already reached NATO, where an atmosphere of confusion and uncertainty is breathed.
The case of the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Ficowhich annulled at the last moment a … Meeting with the Secretary General of the Alliance to attend in Washington a convention that brings together Donald Trump followers, shows the tone of the serious political discrepancies that affect the structure of what has been the stability guarantee for more than 75 years of Western democratic countries.
The French general Michel Yakovleff He has summarized it in a televised interview: “NATO is trained to defend us from dictatorships such as Russia, but is not made to defend us from Americans.”
Yakovleff was a representative of the Supreme Allied Command (Sandeur) in the military committee of the Alliance, so he knows perfectly the interiorities of this military organization, which he considers that he has entered an emergency situation: «If Trump wants to kiss with all the dictators of the world, it means that He is turning his back on everyone else. That is very serious for NATO, I may irreparable ».
His British colleague, the general Richard Schireffwho has been Vice -Room Supreme Ally Collective defense we have to forge an alliance, surely outside NATO ».
The first problem at this time is that there are leaders in some countries that are closest to Trump than their neighbors.
The case of Slovakia is the most paradigmatic. This is reflected by that last minute clue that the NATO secretary general has given the secretary general, Mark Ruttewho was expected on Thursday in Bratislava, but at the last moment his visit was annulled.
The tribulations in the organization itself to hide this setback in the public agenda of the Secretary General show that at the Atlantic headquarters of Brussels they are trying to turn off these small fires as they can, according to some diplomats, hoping that over time the waters return to their channel In Washington.
Officially, there has been no incident: Routte traveled to Bratislava and, in the absence of Fico, met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Responsible for Defense, Defense, Robert Kalinak; the owner of exteriors, JURAJ BLANÁRand the economy, Ladislav Kamenický. He could even visit the NATO troops deployed in this country as reinforcement to the defense of the eastern flank.
However, from European countries things look very different. The president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Parliament, Michael Rothhe considers sharply that “transatlantic relations have ended”, the tone of the new US government is like a “scenario of the worst case” and Europe “is left alone and unable to opt for the best options, but only the less bad ».
For Nigel Gould-Daviesprincipal researcher for Russia and Eurasia in the prestigious International Institute of Strategic Studies, what is happening is “an unprecedented transatlantic crisis”. During the Cold War, it was feared that the United States will disconnect from the Alliance, abandon Europe and return to isolation. What has begun now is worse: when negotiating with Russia above Brussels and intervening in the policy of this continent, the United States is not only dissocculating from Europe, but is also deciding on it and altering it ».
Some countries have already begun to prepare for the new scenario. In France, the only country in the European Union with nuclear weapons, on Thursday, the president Emmanuel Macron He intervened on television in what was intended to be a dialogue with citizens, but it sounded rather as a homily to explain to the nation that a greater effort will be needed to rearm the country.
Germany celebrates elections on Sunday and Monday the European Foreign Ministers come to Brussels. Although his meeting coincides with an expected formal meeting with Israel after all tensions in Gaza, the turn towards the positions of the Russian dictatorship that the US president has undertaken will be the central issue.
#Europeans #Canadians #unite #defense #NATO
