BRUSSELS: Nato defence ministers will try to rally around their latest plans to contain Russia on Thursday, while keeping a lid on their frustrations over new steel tariffs that US President Donald Trump has justified on national security grounds.
Briefly putting aside what Nato’s chief said were “serious differences” within the alliance, defence ministers are set to agree a plan to protect the North Atlantic against increased Russian naval strength, move troops more quickly across Europe and have more combat-ready battalions, ships and planes.
“We see differences on trade... on climate change and the Iran nuclear deal, and these are serious differences between Nato allies,” Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on the eve of the meeting. But he argued that the alliance had weathered divisions in its seven-decade history.
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis is also expected to try to ease tensions with European allies in the meeting over two days in Brussels. But three Nato diplomats said they were frustrated that Trump had decided to target Europe on so many different issues.
Trump’s “America first” rhetoric and inconsistent statements on Nato have morphed into policy that directly challenges European priorities, the diplomats said, citing new US metal tariffs and Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate change accord and the 2015 Iran nuclear accord.
Nato diplomats said they increasingly see the US president as an unknown quantity with a lack of interest in the transatlantic ties that Europe and Canada cherish.
“US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to Nato in April and made a very favourable impression, and everyone respects and admires Jim Mattis. But there’s a fear and an uneasiness about what Trump will do next,” one diplomat said.
Trump is expected at the Nato summit in Brussels in July, a year since he first came to the alliance and publicly admonished allies for not spending enough on defence.
Stoltenberg was expected to announce higher expenditure figures for Nato Europe in 2018 later on Thursday. But Trump’s envoy to Nato, Kay Bailey Hutchison, told reporters that the spending issue will remain a sore point for the president. — Reuters
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