While European leaders insist they will not dance to Trump’s tunes about NATO and aid to Ukraine, they are singing a playlist designed to appeal to the former US president and his Republican supporters.
Publish time: 19/02/2024 – 12:47
11 minutes
Europe seeks to influence Trump camp on NATO and Ukraine aid.
Trump said he would not protect countries that failed to meet the transatlantic military alliance’s defense spending targets and would even encourage Russia to attack them, a move that sparked fierce criticism from Western officials.
This past weekend, previous comments by Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, cast a shadow over the Munich Security Conference, an annual gathering of politicians, military and diplomats that is usually a barometer of U.S.-European relations. European leaders are anxious not only about the future of NATO after Trump defeats now-President Joe Biden in November, but also that the U.S. Congress is delaying a $60 billion Ukraine aid package as Republicans demand border security measures. as a prerequisite for passing the bill.
Ukrainian and Western leaders say the aid plan is crucial as Kiev’s military continues to struggle nearly two years after the Russian invasion began. Moscow said on Sunday it had taken full control of the hard-hit eastern Ukrainian town of Avdievka.
European leaders are reaching out to the U.S. Congress, business leaders and think tanks as part of an effort to influence Trump’s camp that began even before Trump made controversial remarks a week ago.
Their lobbying arguments include: Europe is increasing defense spending and will take more action; such spending and aid to Ukraine is worth billions of dollars to U.S. arms companies; protecting Europe projects U.S. power toward China, And this is a focus of Trump’s foreign policy.
“We Europeans must pay more attention to our own security, both now and in the future,” German Chancellor Scholz said at the Munich Security Conference at the luxury hotel Hof in Bavaria.
Dozens of U.S. lawmakers attended.
Scholz and other European leaders, such as Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is most likely to become NATO’s next secretary-general, insist they are taking defense issues more seriously because it is in their own interests, not because of special Trump.
But their aim is to convince Trump and his followers that it would also be to their benefit to insist on working with NATO despite complaining loudly, as he did throughout his presidency.
“It is in the interest of the United States to form a NATO alliance with strong allies, which can enhance American influence,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gall Storey told Reuters in Munich.
Late last month, current NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited the United States, in part to promote NATO issues and support for Ukraine to the Trump campaign.
He spoke at the Heritage Foundation, a Trump-friendly think tank in Washington, and visited a Lockheed Martin plant in Alabama that makes guided-missile anti-tank missiles.
“A large part of the funds allocated to Ukraine ends up going to the United States because they buy weapons, such as missiles, from American defense producers,” Stoltenberg said in Munich, citing U.S. sanctions against China. The concern expressed: “The United States accounts for 25% of the world’s GDP. Together with NATO allies, we account for 50% of the world’s GDP and 50% of the world’s military strength. So as long as we stand together, we are safe.”
European leaders say their higher defense spending reflects the greater security threat Russia now poses.
It also reflects a growing view among European governments that no matter who wins the next U.S. presidential election, they must take more responsibility for their own security in the coming years.
“I think that over time the United States will no longer be willing to think that it has to do its best to ensure European security,” Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Kalins told Reuters.
Eighteen of NATO’s 31 members are expected to meet the defense spending target of at least 2% of GDP this year, compared with only 11 in 2023. Germany and France, the EU’s largest economies, are both expected to achieve this goal.
According to NATO estimates, U.S. defense spending will account for about 3.5% of GDP in 2023.
But there is much more to defense than spending numbers. The United States also brings superpower strength, nuclear arsenals and an American-led command structure to NATO’s defense of Europe.
Reuters said it is an open question how much influence the European arguments will have on Trump and Republican lawmakers.
Well-known Trump supporter J.D. Vance, the Republican U.S. senator from Ohio, poured cold water on the Munich audience. He pointed out that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not pose an existential threat to Europe and that the United States and Europe were unable to provide sufficient arms to defeat Russia in Ukraine.
According to Vance, “There are a lot of bad people around the world. I’m more interested in some of the problems in East Asia right now than I am in Europe.” Vance also said that he welcomed the increase in defense spending in Europe and said that if Trump Back in the White House, he predicts Trump will not withdraw from NATO. But he said that Europe must have stronger military capabilities as Washington will further shift its focus to Asia.
Vance also asked, “This is not just a matter of spending money. How many mechanized brigades can Germany deploy tomorrow? Maybe one?” He believed that “the United States’ security blanket has allowed European security to shrink on its own.”
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2024-02-19 11:47:09
