“Delays and indecision to assist Ukraine in the war with the Russian Federation are still present among NATO members, the newspaper writes.”, – WRITE: www.unian.ua
Delays and indecision to assist Ukraine in the war with the Russian Federation are still present among NATO members, the newspaper writes.
It turned out that NATO members were more afraid of Trump than Putin, emphasized the Times / UNIAN collage, Wikipedia photo, Presidential Office of UkraineThe cowardice does not seek NATO, but it dominated the Alliance summit in the Hague, which took place on June 25. About it writes the Times Viewer Edward Lucas.
According to him, alliance leaders gathered in a Dutch city and showed that they were more afraid of US President Donald Trump than Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
“In order to reassure the President of the United States, they reduced the agenda, pushed Ukraine into the background, diminished the threat from Russia, gave out empty promises and evaded urgent decisions.
In particular, the first to decide to impress Trump was the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. He thanked the President of the United States for forcing the Allies to agree to a new target figure for a 5% GDP defense costs and stressed:
“Europe will pay in great as it should, and it will be your victory.”
Countries that are geographically close to Russia are already reaching and even exceeding 5%, but they cannot compensate for lags in other areas.
“Lithuania can spend 100 percent … But this will still be not enough to cover those who do not fulfill their obligations,” the former foreign minister of the country Gabrielus Landsbergis emphasized.
In turn, Spain says they will do everything they need, but will not spend 5%. As for Belgium and Slovakia, they are publicly hesitant. Other countries in private conversations complain that the percentage is too large.
Lucas stressed that large military costs are politically unpopular and economically devastating.
“It destroyed the Soviet Union,” one of the participants of the summit said.
At the same time, the author emphasized:
“NATO European allies combined ten times more than Russia. If they spent even their available defense budgets properly, work would be done. Promises to spend a lot of money in the future will not fill dangerous gaps in defense and restraint now.”
At the same time, as recalled by the observer, NATO’s preliminary promises were not fulfilled by Ukraine, but were not canceled. In particular, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky was not present at a meeting of leaders, but he had the opportunity to discuss the situation in his country at this summit.
“Even the Ukrainian leader Tet-Tet with the US President was polite. Trump said he” could not be more kind, “hinted that he could sell Ukraine’s very necessary Patriot Air Defense Systems. This nice news was heard at a press conference that he was the most important. NATO colleagues changed his view of the Alliance, showing that “these people really love their countries; This is not a stealing “,” Lucas said.
However, Trump was condemned when he questioned NATO’s basic obligations for collective defense. He noted that the US obligation to defend Europe depends on how the “numerous definitions” of Article 5 applies.
As is often the case with Trump’s statements, there was a proportion of truth. 145 words in the most cited point of the Atlantic Charter are only encouraged, but do not oblige members of the Alliance to defend each other in the event of an attack. If you evaluate the scale of the call rather than the potential of the disaster, the picture looks different. Close attention to the mood and choice of Trump’s words emphasizes the vulnerability of the alliance to the whims of the President, ” – analyzed the author of the material.
According to Lucas, NATO is entrusted to the United States to close many gaps, including scanty stocks of ammunition and spare parts, air -and -missile defense, great range of fire, as well as important “aids”, including intelligence and logistics.
“These resources are already extremely limited:” Only one of everything, “said General Ben Hodges, a former US Army Commander in Europe.
As the observer emphasized, the Allies consider Trump’s approach confusing, which can embarrass Putin, because sometimes ambiguity outweighs clarity.
However, delays and indecision are still present. According to Landsbergis, “Ukraine falls out of sight.”
“While the summit was buzzing and voted, Russian drones and rocket attacks killed dozens of Ukrainian civilians, but they barely got into newspaper headlines. The cowardice looks cheap when others are paid for it,” Lucas summed up.
NATO Summit – What is knownWe will remind, on June 25 Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Trump in the fields of NATO summit. The meeting of the leaders lasted more than 40 minutes. As a result, the press was not allowed to leaders and no applications were made.
It is known that this is the first negotiations of the presidents in the last 2 months. Last time, the Ukrainian leader saw Trump in April this year during the funeral of Pope Francis.
At the same time, Zelensky later revealed the details of his meeting with Trump. He said that they were talking about how to achieve ceasefire and true peace, how to protect people in Ukraine.
The head of state also spoke with Trump and the readiness of Ukraine to buy US air defense systems for covering cities and citizens. The possible co -production of drones was also discussed.
“Thank you for meeting and support. Thank you for really good words about our people. We will work on,” the president said.
In turn, Reuters wrote that the NATO summit had pleased Trump, but did not answer vital questions. It is noted that many Europeans are disturbing that the US President has a more reconciliation on Moscow and supports Kiev less than his predecessor Joe Biden.
“The NATO Summit, which essentially ignores the war in Ukraine, has everyone to alert us,” the US’s former NATO Julian Smith said.
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