NATO Projects Unity as Leaders Rally Behind Ukraine
Indonesia Receives First Russian Crude Shipment Under April Supply Deal RFE/RL journalists report the news in 21 countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established.
We provide what many… It is fair to say that the final day of the NATO summit in Ankara on July 8 got off to a tense start.
Overnight, the United States had resumed strikes on Iran after an uneasy cease-fire.
The entire conflict had shaken the military alliance, with US President Donald Trump slamming European allies for not helping out and questioning their “loyalty.” In his joint press appearance with the NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on July 8, he again ripped into European nations for delaying or preventing US airplanes from using bases on the continent for air strikes, called the Iranian regime “liars” and “scum,” and said that the deal with Iran was "over.” On top of that, he also lashed out at Spain, a country that both criticized the war publicly and spent moderately on defense, alluding to a potential trade embargo on Madrid.
Trump also renewed his designs from earlier in the year to take over the Danish territory of Greenland.
From the doorstep images, it appeared that the European leaders were fearing the worst as they slowly entered the meeting room.
Inside the room, however, there was a completely different atmosphere.
NATO diplomats -- speaking to RFE/RL on the condition of anonymity as they weren't authorized to speak on the record -- said that the US president was in a good mood and much more diplomatic and that he didn’t repeat his remarks about Spain, Greenland, and Iran to the other 31 leaders.
After the meeting, Trump gushed, saying there was “tremendous unity,” while Rutte branded the Ankara gathering “a tremendous success” and spoke glowingly about “a huge sense of unity.” On Iran, the summit declaration endorsed by all leaders noted that “Iran must never have a nuclear weapon” and repeated a “call on Iran to fully respect freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.” Despite American misgivings about European nations' reluctance to support Washington in the conflict, Rutte pointed out that the US had made over 5,000 sorties from European air bases in recent months.
And then there was the lack of European and Canadian defense spending -- a constant issue for the White House, which Trump recently had called out.
After the meeting, NATO triumphantly pointed out that the other 31 allies together had increased defense spending by $139 billion in the recent year -- an increase that Rutte wasn’t slow to give Trump credit for.
At last year’s NATO summit in The Hague, there were question marks as to whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would even show up.
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