–There was a good atmosphere at the NATO summit in Madrid this week. Putin’s war in Ukraine has united the alliance, according to both US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. POOL / Reuters / NTB
It’s war in Europe. But at the NATO summit in Madrid this week, the mood was startlingly cheerful, despite the great seriousness.
When Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg summed up the summit on Thursday afternoon, he repeated two words of the boring:
“Agreement” and “unity”.
And it’s not just political spin. In Madrid, the defense alliance has emerged as more united than in a long time, without major crises and quarrels.
The explanation lies in Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. Nothing creates unity as a common enemy.