Members of the organization want to display their cohesion from Tuesday. But the Turkish veto in Sweden and Finland, the negotiation of a new “strategic concept” and the relationship with the EU continues to cause friction.
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It will be the summit of the “turning point”, says secretary general Jens Stoltenberg. After the confrontation of Europeans with Donald Trump, then President of the United States, on defense budgets in 2018, the debate on the “brain death” decreed by French President Emmanuel Macron in 2019, Euroamican reconciliation in 2021 and the Shock, in March, with the emergency meeting due to the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the summit of the heads of state and government of NATO, which begins Tuesday, June 28 in Madrid, Spain, should above all affirm organization’s cohesion. She enters “a new era of strategic competition”, explains Mr. Stoltenberg, and must be united to face the new challenges.
finished, friction and dissensions? Probably not. Turkey seemed, Monday, June 27, wanting to maintain its veto to the possible membership of Sweden and Finland until the end, mortgaging an event that promised to be the most striking of this summit for public opinion.
The text of the new “strategic concept” of the Alliance was still under discussion. It was a question of finding a formulation of a few key concepts which is acceptable by the thirty allies: the precise definition of the Russian threat, of the “challenge” posed by China, of the relationship between NATO and the European Union (EU), from the desirable level of defense budgets, or even the means to be allocated to the organization.
Discounting the main lines of the inaugural speech that he had to hold the next day in Madrid, before the real start of the discussions on Wednesday 29, Mr. Stoltenberg obviously wanted to highlight the subjects that unite the allies. First, the need to continue to massively support Ukraine, in accordance with what President Volodymyr Zelensky, who will be expressed in videoconference during a special session devoted to his country, will claim. According to Stoltenberg, managers should announce measures to facilitate the transition from Ukrainian army equipment to modern NATO -type weapons. A new military aid promised to kyiv will include secure communication systems, fuel and anti-drone weapons.
The war triggered by President Vladimir Putin also erased the differences between Allies as to the definition of the Russian threat. It will be well presented as “the most important and direct” against the security and the values of the transatlantic zone, as well as of the international order. Forgotten the latest strategic concept to date, drawn up in 2010, which presented Russia as a “partner” country. “She chose confrontation, I regret it, but we must face this new reality,” explains the secretary general.
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