Foreign Media: America's Constant Changes Add Concerns to NATO Summit

Reference News Network reported on July 8 According to the Associated Press on July 5, since Mark Rutte took office as NATO Secretary General nearly two years ago, he has spent most of his time trying to keep the United States bound to the world's largest military alliance, using unabashed flattery to prevent U.S. President Donald Trump from fulfilling his threat to abandon NATO.

However, U.S. demands have changed repeatedly, increasing the risks of this week's NATO summit in Turkey.

Initially, it was just a matter of money. Trump has long criticized NATO allies for their defense spending being too low as a percentage of their national budgets. But these issues were addressed at last year's summit, when U.S. allies committed to aligning their military spending as a percentage of GDP with the U.S.

Rutte last month attempted to quell any lingering concerns during a meeting at the White House, using a new lobbying tool: a chart marked with the golden words "Trump's Trillion Dollars"—indicating that since 2017, additional defense spending by European allies and Canada has reached $1.2 trillion.

But Trump seems unmoved, claiming he is still disappointed that certain NATO allies refuse to join the war against Iran. Trump said, "We don't need their money; I just want loyalty."

Trump hinted that he might not attend the upcoming summit if it weren't for the host, Turkish President Erdogan.

Trump has threatened to withdraw from NATO, casually claiming he would pull U.S. troops out of Europe and vowed to take over Greenland. He has also questioned whether the U.S. should protect those allies that do not spend enough on defense, thereby undermining their trust in him.

Without the U.S., the largest and most powerful ally, NATO would struggle to function. Just as Russia, the country that historically gave rise to NATO, poses a more serious threat, Europe is being forced to take on defense responsibilities on its own.

This year's summit will be hosted by another key NATO member with a strong personality, Erdogan. Erdogan's personal relationship with Trump may keep the U.S. president at the summit, but it is unlikely to bridge the gaps.

Rutte has been trying to convince Trump that his European partners are significantly increasing military spending, allowing the U.S. to focus its attention on security challenges posed by other major powers, while European allies handle the war in Ukraine.

However, Trump now demands more, and the "loyalty" he seeks is something that any chart would find difficult to quantify.

According to a report by Agence France-Presse on July 5, NATO is gradually accepting a reality: to continue to exert influence in the future, it must become more "Europeanized" and reduce its dependence on the U.S.

"A stronger Europe makes for a stronger NATO"—this is the slogan for the NATO summit in Ankara from July 7 to 8. However, achieving this goal still requires overcoming multiple challenges.

In NATO's terminology in Brussels, this is referred to as "burden sharing," meaning the responsibilities and costs are shifting from the U.S. to Europe. This long-discussed topic, which had remained theoretical for a long time, has become very concrete with the U.S. announcing its first troop withdrawal from Europe since Trump returned to the White House.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth announced in mid-June that there would be a "reassessment" of U.S. troop deployments in Europe within six months. European allies have thus received a warning, but they are far from prepared.

All European allies have committed to spending at least 5% of their GDP on security and defense by 2035. The European defense industry has begun to enhance its capabilities, but in certain strategic areas such as space and aerial refueling, it still lags far behind the U.S. For example, Europe does not produce ballistic missiles, and the production of cruise missiles is also insufficient.

This year, Europeans have begun to take on more responsibilities, taking over three NATO joint command centers. However, the U.S. still confirms its core military role since NATO's establishment in 1949, responsible for commanding the armed forces. Additionally, the U.S. retains the position of Supreme Allied Commander Europe.

The idea of a gradual U.S. withdrawal has increasingly become a consensus in Brussels, but a NATO diplomat revealed to Agence France-Presse that there is still "a lot of latent anxiety about a new security landscape in Europe led by Germany." The source stated that Germany has publicly expressed its intention to build the Bundeswehr into the strongest conventional army in Europe, which has caused unease among some countries.

The U.S. also needs to accept that Europe is strengthening its role. The U.S. has always pushed for Europe to do more within NATO, but when this actually begins to happen, they start to panic because they fear losing control. (Translated by Cao Weiguo and Pan Ge Ping)