On Monday, 30 leaders and government leaders met at a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, the headquarters of the 1949 security alliance.
At the first NATO summit of Joe Biden as US President, he will be keen to reassure his colleagues that “America is back” after four years of turmoil for former US President Donald Trump, who declared NATO “lost”, calling member states “killed”. “, and initially refused to explicitly accept NATO’s self-defense principle.
A new “2030 Strategic Concept” that outlines how the alliance is ready to address the various challenges that are taking place here is expected to be implemented.
NATO’s current ideology dates back to 2010, but “did not take it as seriously as it did in Russia, nor did it mention China,” said James Goldgeier, professor of international relations at the American University and former Russian, Ukrainian, and European Affairs director. National Security Council Staff.
The need for a radical change in defense was called in by French President Emmanuel Macron, and his criticism in 2019 that the agreement had “died brain” and was no longer valid.
NATO officials Jens Stoltenberg have offered a firm idea on issues such as cyberwarfare, China, Russia, intellectual competition with the ruling world and the challenges of climate change in international security, experts said.
Here are five things you need to know:
Afghanistan
One of the biggest challenges on the list is how NATO will ensure that peace in Afghanistan is maintained in its role in the region.
The US military and NATO allies are expected to step down from their 9,600-strong mission by Biden’s final day on September 11 – after almost two decades of conflict in the region.
Opponents, including Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, have warned there is a risk that the Taliban could seize power.
The al-Qaeda network – which has suggested the US take over Afghanistan after the September 11 protests – still has 400 to 600 members fighting the Taliban, according to the UN Security Council.
In an interview in April with CNN, al-Qaeda said “the war against the US will continue on all sides unless they are expelled from Islam”.
NATO plans to continue providing financial assistance to Afghanistan. But questions remain as to whether allies could pledge millions – perhaps billions – of dollars to supply weapons to Afghanistan.
U.S. military officials also discussed setting up neighboring countries to return to Afghanistan if the threat comes from al-Qaeda or ISIL.
The US wants to work in Pakistan, but because of the strained relations between Islamabad and Washington, it is as unlikely as Biden.
The Pentagon may also be interested in returning to governments in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, he added, an idea that could require blessings from China and Russia.
“This will be even more difficult than in the last 10 years,” he said, as relations between the US and the two regimes deteriorated.
Russia
Leaders will also discuss strengthening security for the entire NATO alliance, with a special focus on “dangerous Russia”, said Kristine Berzina, chief of the German Marshall Fund in the United States.
Last year, Russia sent 150,000 troops to its border with Ukraine in what Stoltenberg called “Russia’s largest military force” since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in Crimea in 2014, prompting NATO to warn Russia that it would resort to “violence”. and its consequences.
Tensions between Western and Russian governments have escalated as a result of the Kremlin poisoning of Alexey Navalny’s assassination last August, which many have criticized in Moscow – which he says is negligible.
At the summit, the US will be asked if it is ready to supply troops and tanks to Europe, install more weapons in Europe, and increase security in the country, said Jamie Shea, a senior Brussels-Tank European Friend and former NATO ally.
“Countries like Romania, Bulgaria, want to protect the United States strongly in this region.”
China
In a recent statement, Stoltenberg said Beijing was not seen as NATO as an enemy, but that China’s rise affected the security of the Atlantic diplomat.
Berzina says: “The Chinese people do not look like they are a threat but they can control their enemies.”
NATO allies have condemned China’s atrocities in China, including the unrest in Hong Kong and the capture of more than a million Uighur Muslims in northwest Xinjiang.
Other challenges at NATO include China’s threat to take over Taiwan, the military presence in Beijing, and its approach to the Indo-Pacific region, which Dr Kathleen Hicks, deputy US secretary of defense, has described as “extremist and violent”.
Berzina says under Trump, there was “another desire for Europe to remain united between the two superpowers and not to get involved in the American conflict, especially when relations with the US were as poor as they were”.
While Berzina says there is still more “dragging feet” in Europe on the Chinese issue than the US would expect, Shea hopes things will improve in Beijing.
“Europe is starting to oppose China,” he said.
In March the EU gave permission to Chinese officials for the first time in 30 years on the issue of Uighur.
France, Germany and the UK have recently sent warships to the Indo-Pacific region, indicating that Europe has a “stable and open Indo-Pacific region”, said Rafael Loss, Pan-European Data Projects co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“NATO may seek to forge closer alliances with organizations such as Australia, India, Japan and South Korea. It also needs to think critically about how it can help protect democracy in Taiwan, ”Loss said.
The use of security
NATO members have decided to increase the company’s budget for cooperation, such as education, sports and strong cyber security.
Stoltenberg has called on allies to “spend more” and “better” and said they would provide $ 20bn in business for the next 10 years.
Currently, a typical pot is 0.3% of total partner funding, or $ 2.5bn.
French authorities opposed his decision to cut off all donations.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly told Politico this month: “All this money is money that will not help raise the level of international security and security in Europe that benefits NATO. And what to do? No one can tell you.”
Berzina hopes that spending money will be difficult for some NATO members: “There have been leaders and non-spenders. There will be some compromises, but I think this will be difficult, especially on the COVID-19 economy. ”
Next, the EU summit
The next day, Tuesday, Biden and EU officials will hold a summit in Brussels.
Experts say taxes and sales related to aircraft and steel are very important, as well as how to create new corporate taxes worldwide according to an agreement reached on June 5 with a group of seven finance ministers.
Other issues include data transfer, epidemic recovery, climate change and carbon pricing strategies.
While Europe is eager to welcome Biden into the region, past observers have shown how quickly Washington’s election has changed.
European leaders have not yet figured out how Biden’s views on “outside the middle class” differ from Trump’s “first American” views, Goldgeier said.
“This is going to be a tough question for Europe.”
