Doug, 75 years. But it comes,
doesn't it? This summit is NATO's facing some of the
greatest threats to its unity it ever has.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, to the point that you you
wonder whether or not
NATO's far and away biggest member,
most important member of the US will even still have
NATO's back a year down the road.
Look, looming extremely large, I mean giant over this entire
summit is the prospect that Donald Trump will soon be
in the white back in the White House.
It's not an implausible prospect,
especially at a time when Joe Biden is is the
subject of a lot of squabbling within within his own
party as to whether or not he should even stay
on the ticket or or or or step aside in
favor of a younger,
more dynamic candidate. All of that said,
look, Donald Trump, if he were back,
the reason I say all bets might be off for
NATO.
He is a man who has time and again bashed
NATO.
He has threatened to pull the US out of the
alliance.
He is basically threatened to pull the plug on
on future aid to Ukraine,
support for Ukraine, one of the giant dominating themes of
this summit as well.
And he's a man who has made no secret of
the fact that he has disdain,
outright disdain for the Western alliance.
Yeah, he's he's beating them over the heads,
telling them to to step up,
contribute more to the alliance.
But at the same time,
he's a man with an extremely isolationist vision who has
never subscribed to this sort of article $0.05 of an
attack against one is an attack against all.
So it does it raises that question at a time
when there is more disunity within NATO ranks.
We have Viktor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister,
fresh back from fresh visits to Vladimir Putin in Moscow,
to Xi Jinping in Beijing,
a man who's broken ranks with not just NATO,
but the EU in general right now among the the
members of that alliance.
And a time where you have the far right on
the rise across Europe,
France just having its own close shave.
A lot of leaders right now,
you know, wondering whether their own public opinion is going
to swing against the whole notion of having a Western
alliance in support of Ukraine against what the Western world
has in the past and would have many years in
the past perceived as Russian aggression against the sovereign state.
Because of everything you just said,
Doug. Of course, that means that NATO and Ukraine really
scrambling now to try and shore up defenses.
Absolutely. It's the term being used to it is Trump
proofing,
which is exactly what it sounds like.
It is making NATO impervious to the prospect of a
Trump who basically backs out of NATO or or let's
NATO fend for itself.
What does that mean concretely?
Well, it means that NATO itself is trying to step
up its own weapons production.
It's just signed a a new contract with Raytheon,
a $700 million contract for Stinger missiles.
Stingers are surface to air missiles.
They can be easily carried across the field.
They're very mobile. They can also be mounted on the
backs of trucks and fired against
incoming aircraft. So these stingers are already part of the
Ukrainian weapons arsenal.
But also NATO needs more of them as well.
Also Joe Biden stepping up his support with pledges of
a new anti air anti air defense system,
another Patriot system as well.
More ammunition, also pledges of ammunition.
What basically the the, the NATO members Ukraine are trying
to do Ukraine domestically,
producing more weapons. They are trying now to ensure that
in the absence of the US
aid coming through, military aid,
arms aid, that Europe will be able to have its
own weapons capacity,
not just to help Ukraine down the road,
but also to keep its own stockpiles
replenished, which is no easy question.
It's not up to the task right now where we
stand today of fending for its own defense,
seeing after its own defense and seeing after Ukraine's defense.
Some military experts say that
they you would need to double the current spending in
order to help Ukraine defend itself from a stepped up
Russian assault in the near future.
That so far isn't happening.
So, yeah, everyone's scrambling, everyone's hoping,
everyone's praying that some solution will be found.
But on the basis of what we've seen from the
US,
the Republicans held up those weapons supplies to Ukraine for
six months.
We saw the effect that had on the battlefield if
Donald Trump were to come to power in November,
there's the prospect of not a six month wait for
weapons supplies,
but four years, perhaps even more if his policies were
to be implemented and then picked up by another Republican
administration.
Don, thanks very much. Doug Herbert,
international affairs commentator here on France 24.