The 75th NATO Summit commenced amidst its uncertain future. It is being hosted by Joe Biden in Washington from 09-11 July 2024. The alliance grapples with internal and external crises. Since there is a rise of the political Right in not just the United States but also in Europe. It also faces external challenges, increasing clout of China in Eastern Europe and Russian war on Ukraine.
NATO is grappling for its future. Why so?
Concern over Trump returning to power
The US-led military alliance is troubled over Donald Trump returning to power in the US. Since the former US President demanded NATO leaders to scale up their financial assistance to NATO. Otherwise, he will not commit to Article 5 of collective defence. Article 5 is the foundation of this transatlantic military alliance. It warrants security of NATO members, it says if an armed attack occurs against any NATO member, it will imply the attack on all of its members.
If Trump wins the elections in November, he promised to make a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine. The terms and conditions are still unclear. He claims that providing Ukraine with NATO membership was a provocative approach. A threat Russia could not have ignored considering NATO will be reaching its borders.
NATO members are concerned that the peace deal will likely favor Russia and could further strengthen Russia to target the NATO members, especially Baltic states.
This three-day summit is a crucial test of his leadership.
Rise of Far-right in Europe
The rise of far-right parties in Europe looms as a shadow on NATO’s future. France, a nuclear armed and permanent member of the UN Security Council, stunned many in its snap elections, with the far right party winning the first round of voting. But in the end Left parties and center right parties joined to stop the right from gaining absolute majority. European Union (EU) Parliamentary Elections held in June also showed increasing influence of right-wing parties.
Italy’s Georgia Meloni has been providing unwavering support for Ukraine against Russia. It is tough to generalize the stand of the right wing since Russia is one of the issues that divides the far right in Europe.
Hungarian’s PM Viktor Orban is on his so-called peace mission making surprise visits to Moscow and Beijing after Hungary assumed the EU rotating presidency for six months. He discussed a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine, which lacked a mandate from the EU. The meetings were condemned by both Ukraine and NATO leaders.
What is NATO? How has it been revived?
The North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is a trans-atlantic military alliance established in 1949. It was formed during the Cold War intended to deter expansion of the Soviet Union- group of 13 communist republics including Russia. Due to the recent enlargement of the military alliance, it now has 32 members from Europe and North America.
When the talks of Ukraine joining NATO began, it posed a direct threat to Russia since NATO would be reaching its borders. But when Putin invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022, states like Sweden and Finland who have been neutral for so long sought security under the umbrella of NATO (Article 5).
75th NATO summit in Washington is three-days long, agenda on the table will certainly be dominated by Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine will seek more military support as well as a faster path to NATO membership, as it has been ensured by NATO allies before.
Russia’s move to forcefully annex Ukraine has backfired against it leading to the revival of NATO. Still NATO is grappling for its future since the shadow of Trump looms over it.
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