The North Atlantic Treaty Organization became the principal shield of Western Europe against the Soviet Union when its members organized it on April 4, 1949 in Washington. The military bloc conceived the doctrine such that an attack on any of its members would be deemed an attack on its allies.
Consistent with this, President Trump, in his usual browbeating method of impressing others, surprisingly exhorted all the members to raise their contribution to Nato’s military expenditures to 2 percent of their GDP.
Trump, like many who have a hazy understanding how Nato came into being, would take his acerbic statement as a reminder to comply with the “deal” they promised. By that, the President implies that the long patience of the US is over. The US could no longer foot the bill that has reached 74 percent of the alliance’s total expenditures. Probably, he was referring to the fact that of the 28 members, only about five have complied with the 2-percent GDP quota, saying that the US has been playing the role of a “sucker.”
Thus, if one would take the abrasive statement of Trump, frankly he is just reminding them of their obligation under the agreement.
Particularly hit was Angela Merkel of Germany. That country is Europe’s biggest and richest economy, and Trump did not mince his words in saying that Germany has reduced the US to a sucker for failing to meet its quota contribution to Nato, yet buying oil from Russia, referring to the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline project that would directly supply Germany with natural gas from Vyborg, Russia to Dreifsward, Germany passing through the Baltic Sea.
Trump accused Germany and its partners of getting richer at the expense of the US, enjoying a trade surplus of $151 million while imposing restrictive trade barriers on US goods.
But for all of Trump’s candor, he failed to mention that the alliance’s existence today has become less and less in favor of the member countries of Western Europe. Nato has become the springboard of the US to launch aggressive policies across the continent onward to Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Trump failed to mention that Nato has undergone a political and military metamorphosis in identifying its allies from its enemies in the wake of the end of the Cold War. He could not be boastful enough to recite the truth that the only thing that is constant in the alliance is the fact that it remains under the effective control and command of the US.
Trump remains unaware that Nato was created at the height of the Cold War with a defined enemy headed by the then Soviet Union and its allies in Eastern Europe, and for which communist states organized their counterpart military bloc known as the Warsaw Pact in May 1955. Nato then was dichotomized from its enemies on the basis of ideological differences.
Today, the Soviet Union no longer exists, and most of the so-called Eastern satellite states now seek closer identification with the European Union of which 13 (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia and Montenegro) have joined Nato. Three were formerly part of the federated states of the defunct Soviet Union.
The implosion of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the collapse of the Eastern bloc effectively resulted in the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and of the Soviet equivalent of the EU known as the CMEA or Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.
The continued eastward advance of Nato has now led many to ask why it continues to expand. Could it be that Nato has conversely used it to justify its imperativeness; that there is a need to make the alliance strong to thwart possible reaction by Russia to this creeping encirclement.
At the end of the Cold War in 1991, the US made a promise to the Soviet’s last Premier Mikhail Gorbachev that in exchange for the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact and the reunification of Germany, Nato would not advance beyond the border that existed before 1991. That, however, was violated, and the US is not only enticing countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to join Nato which move could open a wide flank to create an imbalance from the whole of Russia to China that saw the forging of their own strategic partnership.
The metamorphosis in the objective of Nato is now perceived by many as no longer serving its original purpose. Nato has involved itself in many wars outside what has originally been defined as countries it sees could pose as threat to the alliance. Rather, it has become a tool to carry out US policy by its involvement and participation in so many wars never conceived by the member- states to become their enemies.
This is seen by their involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and covertly by its continued participation to oust the legitimate government in Syria. Nato is not only involved in these illegal wars, but its role is now being questioned. Trump, for lack of tact, has failed to reckon out that countries like Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and Poland are incurring great expenses to sustain this military adventurism that originated in Washington rather than in Brussels.
The harsh opposition by Trump to the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 Pipeline project is without basis. While economically, the project could be a blow to the US export of natural gas to Europe, strategically, that would be most advantageous to Germany and to countries supportive of the project who also happen to be members of Nato. The US cannot insist on the continued German patronage of its natural gas that costs three times the price offered by Russia’s Gazprom, this not to mention the cost of transporting oil across the Atlantic.
Moreover, Trump did not mention the events in Ukraine where the US played a key role in bloodily ousting Viktor Yanukovych. The increasing political instability and the civil war saw the disruption in the flow of gas passing through that country. There is not only the threat of sabotage but exorbitant fee being charged for their transit. In other words, transit of gas through Ukraine has become troublesome. Nord Stream 2 would reach Germany unhindered.
Germany has the right to protect its core economic interest and its obligation to support an alliance has become less enthusiastic after Nato expanded its role outside the boundaries that caused many to join and extend their military support. Nato countries have redefined the purpose of their contribution, and their own people are asking why their country ended up fighting an endless war initiated by the US. They see their Bundeswehr holed in a foreign war they never conceived to be their enemy in the future.
rpkapunan@gmail.com
