It was supposed to be a big party, but it will instead be an avalanche of questioning. From Tuesday, July 9 to Thursday, July 11, American President Joe Biden, struggling for his re-election against Donald Trump, will host his 31 NATO counterparts. French President Emmanuel Macron will not be left out, after the political earthquake caused by the unprecedented rise of the extreme right in the legislative elections.
Not to mention the party pooper Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister who holds the presidency of the European Union, after his controversial trip to Moscow on Friday where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. A series of events that risks livening up discussions between the leaders during working sessions, a formal dinner and asides on the sidelines of the summit.
“There are a lot of exchanges, doubts, linked to our respective internal situations,” a European official confided last week. The objective of the summit “will be to dispel these perceptions,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Feverish unity
The leaders of NATO, founded in 1949 during the Soviet Union and expanded to include Finland and Sweden after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will be keen to show their unity. What message should be sent to Ukraine in particular? This will be the big question at this summit, where President Volodymyr Zelensky is also expected.
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Since the Vilnius summit last year, where Volodymyr Zelensky had singularly irritated the Americans, NATO leaders have been dangling the prospect of Kiev eventually joining. “The chances for us to get an invitation to join NATO are close to zero,” with Washington and Berlin opposed to it, a Ukrainian diplomatic source recently lamented. “This continues to be discussed,” diplomatic sources acknowledge.
Among the expected decisions is NATO taking over the coordination of Western military aid to Ukraine, which has so far been provided by the United States. NATO is also expected to formalize military support for kyiv of 40 billion euros per year and provide new air defense means, diplomats said.
Another objective: to send a clear message to Vladimir Putin’s Russia demonstrating that NATO is ready to react to the slightest aggression. It is also for this precise purpose that, from January to May 2024, more than 90,000 soldiers belonging to the 32 member countries took part in the largest “NATO” exercise since the end of the Cold War, as reported by The Express.
China in the crosshairs
The other big topic will be reaching out to partner countries in the Asia-Pacific, with the leaders of Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand invited to attend the summit on Thursday, along with the EU. NATO is geographically limited to the Euro-Atlantic area.
But the United States has repeatedly called on the alliance to respond to China’s rise. Countries like France believe that NATO has no place in the region, but advocate increased cooperation by engaging more in cyber, space and technology, for example. The summit is expected to result in a strong condemnation of Beijing’s support for Russia, which Western countries say allows Moscow to keep its war effort afloat.