‘Nato faces one of its biggest crises in seven decades’: 70th anniversary of alliance overshadowed by Trump’s adversarial US

Analysis: Alliance’s birthday commemoration will be subdued this year, as western leaders continue to face attacks from US president, writes Kim Sengupta

Trump during a summit of heads of state at Nato headquarters in Brussels (AP)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, formed as the Cold War got under way, is on Thursday marking its 70th anniversary. Russia, after an attempt at detente, is once again the adversary under Vladimir Putin, but the alliance is also facing sustained attacks from an unexpected quarter – the US president.

The commemoration of this birthday would, at other times, have been a lavish occasion. But it will be a subdued affair this year when Nato ministers meet in Donald Trump’s Washington with everyone fully aware that this American president regularly berates them while offering little criticism of Russia and none at all of Putin.

Western leaders have become used to the state of affairs.

At a Nato summit in Brussels last July, Trump hurled insults at member states and made false claims about personally forcing them to raise defence spending, before telling Theresa May on a visit to Britain to go for a hard Brexit – the European Union being another western body he dislikes.

Trump then went on to show an adulatory attitude to the Russian president at their summit in Helsinki, drawing widespread opprobrium.

The extent of the fracture of relationship between the Trump administration and western allies was embarrassingly evident at the recent annual Munich security conference.

“To all of you, I bring greetings from a great champion of freedom and of strong national defence ... I bring greetings from the 45th president of the United States of America, president Donald Trump,” declared vice president Mike Pence as he waited for the applause, his head slightly bowed as if in homage to the leader. But instead of applause there was deafening silence.

After a painfully prolonged pause, the US vice president continued with his speech, at a gathering considered to be particularly important this year with the Middle East, Isis and terrorism, conventional and trade wars, cyberattacks and climate change all on the agenda.

We know the vice president was expecting evocation of Trump to be greeted with enthusiastic clapping – a copy of his prepared address provided by the White House marks the pause for “applause” after the opening lines.

Angela Merkel, in a combative response, warned of the dangers of American isolationism, staunchly defended multilateral institutions under threat from current US policy, and spoke up for the effort being made by Europe, as well as Russia and China, to save the Iran nuclear deal from attempts by Trump to destroy it.

The German chancellor spoke before 30 heads of government and 90 ministers. Her speech was greeted with a prolonged standing ovation in the packed auditorium.

Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary general, has taken a markedly more emollient stance with Trump, not rising to the diatribes at the Nato meeting, overlooking the president’s more fanciful claims, and maintaining the US president has created a “new sense of urgency” among member states on military spending.

Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister who has just had his tenure at Nato extended, met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday.

The president tweeted: “Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, just stated that because of me NATO has been able to raise far more money than ever before from its members after many years of decline. It’s called burden sharing. Also, more united. Dems & Fake News like to portray the opposite!”

Trump’s claim about his supposed personal achievement on Nato spending is untrue. But it does remain the case that successive American presidents have asked Nato countries to raise their defence budget to 2 per cent of GDP, with very limited success.

Germany, one of the wealthiest countries in the alliance, this month announced a goal to spend 1.5 per cent by 2024, only aiming an increase to 2 per cent following a subsequent lengthy period.

Britain is one of the few member states which claims to be have reached the 2 per cent benchmark, although there are accusations from some critics that this was achieved with a degree of creative accounting in Whitehall.

Nato’s 70th summit will take place in Britain in December. It is not often remembered that the idea of the alliance first came from this country, raised by Ernest Bevin, the foreign secretary in Clement Attlee’s Labour government in 1948, who then nurtured the vision to fruition through dialogue with European states and the US.

What we have is unprecedented, we are at the 70th anniversary but the first time where allies have doubted the commitment of the American president

Doug Lute, US envoy to Nato under then president Barack Obama

The UK is, of course, scheduled to be out of the European Union by that time. Whatever happens on that score, however, would not affect Nato membership, although a post-Brexit government in London seeking a trade deal with the US may have to decide where it stands if the rift between Trump and European allies continues to grow.

Two former US ambassadors to Nato have described what they consider to be the real problem facing the alliance.

“What we have is unprecedented, we are at the 70th anniversary but the first time where allies have doubted the commitment of the American president,” held Doug Lute, who was one of the envoys under Barack Obama.

And Nicholas Burns, who served during the administration of George W Bush, commented: “Nato is facing one of its most difficult crises in seven decades. While Nato has strategic challenges to meet, the single greatest threat is the absence of strong, principled American presidential leadership for the first time in its history.”