West Michigan's Morning News
NATO 75th Anniversary Summit
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I would say a muted celebration because this is a time of significant anxiety for NATO. I mean, you talk about 75 being quite old. Well, you are older even than that, including one President Biden who has said that people should judge him on his interactions at NATO for proof that he still has what it takes to lead. And, of course, diplomats, analysts, and world leaders will be watching closely because the United States is such an important member of NATO. There's anxiety among European leaders about who will be in the White House next year. Many look at the possibility of Donald Trump returning, a man who has been to put it mildly skeptical of NATO, but at the same time, anxiety no doubt about President Biden given what's been happening in the US in recent weeks. Yeah, so does he have to somehow assure NATO members that the lights are on in somebody's home? Or does he somehow fall on his laurels? I think it's more about seeing whether he will be able to assure the American people of that. German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz said this morning as he arrived, he said he's not worried about the President Biden's mental fitness, but they will be worried about the future of US foreign policy. Listen, there are some big things happening in the world too, as NATO looks on. That includes a children's hospital bombed in Ukraine just days ago. Obviously, Ukraine, and where on Israel will this fall? Yeah, look, let's talk about this bombing in Ukraine, this missile strike in Ukraine. This has brought into sharp focus the thing that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has been saying for some time. He says they need much better air defense capability. They need, I suppose he'd like the equivalent of Israel's iron dome, and what we're told is that we will see more announcements this week about significant air defense that the US and allies will be providing to Ukraine. The pictures we saw coming out of key of yesterday show that that can't come soon enough for Vladimir Zelensky. Jonathan, as they gather, how nervous is this group with NATO on how thin they can be stretched? Because you look at it with Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, and then you've got China and North Korea just kind of lingering out there with the uncertainty of what's going to happen, right? Yeah, as a group, their main focus is Ukraine and finding ways to support Ukraine. Now, all NATO members are so keen to provide support to Ukraine, Turkey, Hungary, for example, are pretty close to the Kremlin. But in terms of Israel, this is something which is dividing NATO much more than any other topic, many NATO allies have called for an immediate ceasefire. And while that is happening on the fringes of NATO's purview, you might say, that sort of North Atlantic area, everything that happens in the world affects NATO, and they will be talking about that and no doubt that we're talking about China as well. And it seems to me, as I look back to the former president, that his biggest problem with NATO was of the United States holding the water, right? Other countries maybe not being as involved or at least financially when we talk about our headlines here are about the hundreds of millions of dollars that we're sending to places like Israel and Ukraine. What about other countries' involvement financially? Yeah, President, former President Trump, said repeatedly that the U.S. under him wouldn't defend countries that don't meet that 2% spending goal, 2% of gross domestic product on defense. The NATO have said recently that there has been a significant increase in the number of members who have met that 2% commitment. We think several more will say that they'll meet that standard in the next few days. So we are at 23 countries hitting 2% at the moment. That should go up. And I think some people might say that President Trump's pressure on those countries may have borne a dividend here. Yeah, and if they don't meet the 2%, they shouldn't get the little cupcakes with the 75 on. That's what I think. In London this morning, Jonathan Savage, Fox News Radio, thank you.