European leaders at the NATO summit failed to present a plan that would allow them to take greater responsibility for their own defense and instead “just agreed to buy a bunch of stuff,” former US ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder wrote in a column for Politico.
In his assessment, the summit’s main result was a demonstration of “missed opportunities” for Europe. Daalder says alliance leaders, after returning home, may have concluded that such meetings are “not worth the effort” as long as Donald Trump remains US president.
The author writes that the summit’s final declaration “isn’t worth the paper it’s written on.” According to him, Trump behaved affably in public and praised allies for increasing defense spending, but sharply criticized them behind closed doors.
“He berated the UK, France, Germany, and Belgium for not helping during the war in Iran. He called the Spanish ‘hopeless, bad people,’ ordering all trade with the country to stop immediately. And he again said Greenland should become part of the United States, arguing that it is ‘very important’ to America, ‘but not important to Denmark,’” Daalder writes.
The former diplomat notes that summits are supposed to help organizations resolve disagreements, make decisions, and set the future agenda. In his view, none of those tasks was accomplished in Ankara.
Daalder also criticized European leaders’ attempts to “appease” Trump. According to him, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and alliance leaders could instead have spent the past year preparing a road map for how and when Europe would assume key responsibilities for NATO’s defense.
The author believes Trump does not need a separate pretext to withdraw US troops from Europe, because that process has already begun.
“The new reality is this: the US is no longer a reliable ally. Even if a new president reaffirms America’s commitment to NATO and Article 5, as Trump did in Ankara, Europe needs to assume much greater responsibility for its own defense. Managing the transition from a US-led alliance to a Europe-led one is task number one,” Daalder concluded.
The First Day of the NATO Summit in Ankara Was Overshadowed by Trump’s Sharp Remarks
NATO Is Launching a Shift of Defense Weapons Production to Europe at the Ankara Summit
The U.S. Plans to Sharply Reduce Its Military Contribution to NATO—Fighter Jets, Bombers, Ships and Submarines
The U.S. Has Withdrawn Almost All Its Troops From Estonia