The Duran Podcast
NATO summit, funeral to circus
All right, Alexander, let's discuss the NATO conference that just wrapped up in Washington, DC, the 75th anniversary of NATO. The first event that NATO had to me seemed like a funeral. I don't know, the setting, the backdrop, the stage, the shadows, everyone's attire. It seemed like they were going to a funeral. Maybe you could say the funeral of NATO, the rhetoric that was coming out of, out of speakers like Stoltenberg and Biden, if you could make out what Biden was saying at this event. And we ended, we wrapped up the NATO festivities from a funeral to, I don't know, maybe a circus? I don't know, Biden mixing up, Biden mixing up Zelensky with Putin, all the world leaders standing behind Biden, all of them there, Schultz and Smoloney, Stommer. They're all there and they're about to listen to Zelensky speak and Biden's going to introduce Zelensky as a big moment, right? Very big moment, and Biden introduces Zelensky as President Putin. And then he has his big boy press conference, which was going to be Biden's rehabilitation, right? That was the make or break event for Biden to convince everybody that Biden was doing fine and he doesn't have any cognitive issues. And he, he mixes up Trump with, with Harris, he says, Vice President Trump, his very first question, Vice President Trump. By the way, a big boy conference, this is going to be this big press conference, 50 minutes, 11 questions, nothing, it's nothing. Anyway, your thoughts on NATO, and everything that was said at NATO really wasn't much. I mean, they didn't really say anything or do anything and they didn't really give Ukraine much of anything. Anyway, what are your thoughts of that? Well, you remember we've been talking about the G7 and how the G7 has now looked, looks like an exhausted thing and that it's looking like it's passed its cell cell by date and has lost its substance. You know, it's, it's reality and it's become a mere ceremony. I have to say that NATO, when you said that it was looked like a funeral, it's starting to look like it is entering its final days. It was a very, very weird summit. Nobody looked happy. There's attempts to paper over divisions. So they come out with this ferocious final communicate, this statement, which really has to be read to be believed. I mean, it is, you know, the Russians are terrible, evil people seeking to undermine the rules-based order. You know, launching wars in your unprovoked wars in Europe, launching unprovoked wars in Ukraine, Ukraine's future is in NATO. All of this, I mean, you know, almost defiantly aggressive, defiantly aggressive towards China as well. You know, China, you know, this direct accessory, whatever it was that they used of Russia's, that the Russian Chinese strategic partnership is this threat to the peace, the demand that China sees all political and economic cooperation with Russia. I mean, you know, NATO making a demand of a country that's not part of NATO to sign up, you know, to end its key relationship and friendship with its biggest name. Extraordinary statement, but they don't really believe in it. Three leaders there who signed it clearly don't believe in it, or Ban Fizzo and Erdogan. Now they've really much said as much. So already you see this thing is just a pretense because there's already a block of NATO leaders who cannot conceal their skepticism. With Maloney, it's now becoming increasingly interesting not to pay too much attention to what she says, but how she looks and her appearance when she's saying it and when she's with the others. And it was difficult again to avoid noticing the sense of utter disgust and disillusioned. She seems to feel when she's around some of the others, including, by the way, Biden, I noticed. So, Maloney, very, very disillusioned. Starmer drifts around. He doesn't really have any ideas of what his own policies are. He meets Zelensky. He talks about increasing defense spending in Britain and all of that, when in reality it looks as if defense spending in Britain is probably going to fall. So, Starmer, completely disconnected, Macron disconnected as well. And ultimately, this ferocious statement doesn't bear any relationship to the actual emerging global realities. The Russians and the Chinese are going to continue their strategic partnership. India, as we have seen, is going to continue forging its relationship with Russia. Modi goes to Moscow. The Americans, now we now know, tried to persuade him to at least postpone his visit so that it wouldn't coincide with the NATO summit. Modi says no and decides to go when the summit is underway. The Americans absolutely furious about this, but realistically, there is absolutely nothing they can do. We get reports that the Saudis had been getting threats to the Europeans, that if Russian assets are confiscated, they're going to start pulling their money out of Europe and that the Europeans back down. And they make all of these brave statements on behalf of Ukraine, even though deep down all of them know that the war in Ukraine is lost and that there's no way in which the events there can be turned around. So, it was an awful summit. Leaders who have broken, discredited divisions within NATO that everybody pretends do not exist. A ferocious statement obviously drafted by Stoltenberg and his team in collaboration with the State Department that bears no connection to reality. And the leader of the free world, who is supposed to be presiding of it over it, obviously no longer in control of himself, let alone of anything else and getting names mixed up in a way that is both comic and sad at the same time. The leader of NATO, the United States and the host of the NATO event, mixing up Zelensky with Putin. You can't make this stuff up. It was unbelievable. It was a worse summit than the previous summit in Lithuania. And Lithuania was a train wreck. This was much more than a train wreck. And Europe, the collective West, they understand that they must understand everything that is going on, especially with Project Ukraine and how they're being dragged down by Project Ukraine. The entirety of the collective West is being pulled under by Project Ukraine and they still can't let it go. And the one man, the one man that is making an effort to try and save the collective West, even as the collective West attacks him is or bond. That's right. That's exactly correct. The only thing I can think of the reason for all of this is because the leaders of the collective West and NATO, they don't really care if their countries get dragged down. Because the NATO grift is just so good. I don't have any other way of explaining the reasoning behind everything that's going on. I think one leader is starting to have serious doubts about all of this. And this is Meloni, by the way. I mean, who is, who became, you know, prime minister without vast amount of experience, perhaps probably took the view that she had to run along with it, keep going with this because she needed the support of the EU and the Germans to keep things stable in Italy. But she's looking not just unhappy, but frankly angry. And I think she does understand at some level that she is being dragged along and Italy is being dragged along on an adventure, which is going to end in a shipwreck. I don't know whether she's got any plan to distance herself and Italy from it. When somebody looks as angry as she was looking, I suspect that she doesn't actually. I think she's deeply frustrated. But I think she's perhaps the one leader there amongst the Western leaders who had some understanding of the gravity of the crisis that is developing. And then, after all done, you are absolutely right. He is trying to save them. He tried to, he's trying to get peace, some kind of peace process organized. He went to Ukraine. He tried to speak to Zelensky didn't get very far. He had a very, very polite meeting with Putin. He went to China, China, a key stakeholder, very, very polite meeting with Xi Jinping. And of course, he's now in the United States and who does he go to see? He goes to see Donald Trump because he knows that the present law are hopeless. He can't work with them at all. And he's hoping that if you meet Donald Trump and if Trump is elected president in November, then something might at last start to happen. And perhaps the most consequential piece of news of all, if it is true, and I'm not 100% sure it is, by the way, but the most interesting piece of news is that apparently people who are close to Trump have been contacting the Europeans and warning the Europeans that as soon as Trump becomes president, exchanges of intelligence between US and Europe are going to start to be reduced. And that is going to spook the Europeans hugely, and is going to be seen by them as a major first step towards the disassociation of the United States, both from project Ukraine, specifically, but from the whole European native project, which is now in such obvious deep trouble. But of course, it has another meaning as well, because as we know, before and during Trump's first term, an awful lot of the material that was published, which caused Trump so much damage, and which was the product of so many of those investigations originated with precisely those European intelligence agencies that Trump seems to be moving to cut off. So that is going to be very unsettling for the Europeans, and it's going to spook them along. Yeah, the European Intel agencies, the UK, the UK Intel agencies, and the Ukraine, the Ukraine Embassy in Washington, DC, and a lot of the NGOs, and the think tanks connected to Ukraine, they got the ball rolling, or they played a very big part in getting the ball rolling for Russiagate, and then the eventual impeachment. So let's not forget that the impeachment was all about a Trump phone call with the Huzilinsky. So, yeah, I mean, the big question mark with Trump is always whether he's going to put in his cabinet, the neocons, if he's going to staff up with all of the neocons, and that's always the worry that you have with Trump, at least with regards to the foreign policy. I agree, if your bond has come to the realization that nothing is going to save Europe at the moment, nothing's going to save the collective West West at the moment, they have decided to go down with the ship that is called Ukraine. They've decided that, and they're going down, there's no doubt about it. Saudi Arabia is telling them that you're going down, China's telling them you're going down, India's telling them you're going down. The collective West, and especially Europe, the European Union is going down with Ukraine, the leaders have made that decision. The only thing that can save them, and I think this is where we get into our bond and his calculation is Trump winning in November, and if Trump does not put in his cabinet, all the neocons, if he puts all the neocons in his cabinet, then it's game over for the collective West. Nothing's going to change. That's the way I see it. I don't know how you're... I think you're absolutely right. By the way, again, saying all the things that you've just said, I can't fail, but remember a comment that you made way before the conflict in Ukraine started, which is about NATO. What a hill for NATO to die on, Ukraine of all things. But that's what they decided to do. They decided to go all in in Ukraine, and they're now dying on this particular hill, which is Ukraine. It's really so strange, so bizarre, but they don't seem to have any idea of how to turn around and get off this disastrous course that they've locked themselves into. And I think you're absolutely right. I think Orban is saying to himself, "I'm dealing with a bunch of fools. The only thing I can do is I can lay the groundwork by going to Ukraine and Russia and China and hope that come November, someone who is not a fool will finally take over in the United States. And with his help, I might be able to turn this round. And the others, far from being grateful to Orban for what he's doing, as they should be, are now talking with each other about ways to strip Hungary of his presidency of the European Council. I mean, it's astonishing. Who in the gods destroy, who in the gods destroy, they first make mad. Yeah, I agree. It's hard to understand the thinking of the leaders of the collective West. It doesn't make any sense unless, of course, you just go back to the grift. That's the only thing that I can think of. The grift is so good that it's more important than their actual country and their actual union. And it's more important than NATO itself. That's how good the grift is. I don't have another way to explain it. The grift and this all consuming, all controlling, loathing of the person of Vladimir Putin, which has just taken them over completely. They don't seem to be able to think beyond it, beyond it, as it really is Moby Dick and Captain Ahab all over again. And it's got this obsession has the whole of the West in his grip. And everyone else, everywhere else around the world, and a few solitary people in the West, like Orban, asked themselves, "What's come over these people with this?" It's the obsession with Putin, but it's not only Putin. They're obsessed with Trump. And now they're becoming obsessed with China and Xi Jinping. And this brings me to my final question. Why in God's name, if you're NATO and you're the European Union in the collective West, why are you going to now go after China? Are you insane? Is it not enough being smashed by Russia? Is that not enough? Now you're going to go after China? But everything that they put in their declaration in their final statement is pointing directly at China and saying, "Okay, we're coming after you, China. You're next." It's not. It's mad. It is not. It is mad. What I understand is that people in China, this is cutting through now beyond the official media. I mean, the Global Times has written scorching responses to this. The Chinese foreign ministry is coming out with scorching responses about this, but I understand the Chinese public opinion, which does exist, by the way, is now starting to notice this and is becoming angry as well. And the Chinese are not only angry, but they're also baffled. Why are you doing this to yourselves? We don't want to conquer you. We want to trade with you. We don't want to war with you. We've got our red lines. Taiwan being one. But why are you so fixated with Taiwan? Why are you ultimately so fixated with us? And as you absolutely rightly say, the Chinese are seeing all of this. They're also now preparing their defenses. And of course, what this is doing is it's pushing the Chinese and the Russians closer together. If they were in real intention to pull the Chinese and the Russians apart, the West wouldn't be threatening the Chinese. It would be trying to work with them, trying to draw them away, trying to offer the offering them things, which would persuade the Chinese that it was more in their interests to keep an equity distance from Russia between themselves and Russia and the West. But of course, the West, the native people are doing the exact opposite. And it's, again, an obsession born of a highly ideological mindset, which cannot see anything except in all or nothing with us or against us terms. Look at their fury over Modi going to Moscow and meeting Putin and doing deals there. They're absolutely furious with him. They feel that somehow he's let them down as if Modi is responsible for, you know, NATO's feelings. He's not a ball with Russia. He's got no our quarrels with the Russians. So why shouldn't he go to Moscow in India's interests when, you know, when the opportunity arises. But, you know, all or nothing with us or against us. The result is that you're left with nothing and everyone is against you. A final question. Can you comment on what Ukraine got out of this, this NATO summit? Because the NATO summit was all about Ukraine pretty much. I mean, Ukraine, Russia, China, Ukraine, how China's helping Russia. It was all focused around Project Ukraine. What did Ukraine really get out of this, this two day event? That's key to it. Absolutely nothing. He came away empty handed. I mean, he was, you know, everybody talks about how much NATO supports him and they, you know, they ultimately do support him. They want the war to continue. They still talk about stabilizing the situation on the front lines and not negotiating until that happens, which is what a piece in political said that some U.S. officials are saying. But in practical terms, he got nothing from the West because the West has nothing to give him. He wanted permission to launch deep strikes inside Russia. The White House said no, because of course they know that if that does happen, the Russians will retaliate. When his starma, by the way, had to roll back on that one, he hinted that Ukraine did have that permission as did Kate David Cameron before, because the Russians have threatened retaliation against Britain. And we now know that the British did back down after that Russian warning that was given several weeks ago when the British ambassador was called in, and that is now the policy. And starma has had to capitulate to that. So he didn't get permission to strike deep into Russian territory. He tried to get the polls to shoot down Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory. Remember, we talked about this very, very dangerous idea drifting towards a no-fly zone. Then that's now also been reversed. The polls are not going to do it. NATO doesn't like it. The Germans, the Americans are scared of it. What that ultimately means is that the Pentagon doesn't want to be drawn into imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine. We're talking about dozens of air defense missiles are going to be supplied to Ukraine. Dozens on top of the dozens of air defense missiles that have already been supplied to Ukraine since the spring of last year. Enders numbers of them. And in all that time, Ukraine's position in the air has deteriorated, not improved. So all of those Western missiles are not helping Ukraine. We're more, we're told he's going to get his F-16s this month, apparently all six of them. And that's the number of F-16s that Ukraine is going to receive this month with the bulk of them starting to appear by the end of this year. Nobody who's looking at this situation really believes that that's going to make a difference. Zelensky says he needs 128 F-16s. He's going to get a fraction of that number. And money, he won Stoltenberg wanted to give Ukraine a long-term commitment for $100 billion. Zelensky is only going to get $40 billion. He's not going to get $100 billion. He's not got his hands on the Russian assets. The Saudis basically put a stop to all of that. And he's had no commitments for Ukraine's NATO membership. And there was some talk before the summit meeting that there would be more progress made towards Ukraine's entry into the EU, but that didn't happen either. And the reason is not because these leaders don't want to give Zelensky all the things that he wants. It's because they can't. That's the fundamental problem. They are still over promising that which they can't give. We will end the video there. The duran.locos.com. We are on Rumble Odyssey, but your Telegram, Rob Finn and Twitter X, and go to the Duran Shop. Pick up some limited edition merch. You will find the link in the description box down below. Take care. [Music]