Europe must not fall into the trap of creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that Nato would die under a second Trump presidency and that the transatlantic bond would be over, the secretary general of the military alliance has said.

Jens Stoltenberg said leaders must engage with Donald Trump in the same way they did in 2016, no matter what the rhetoric during the US election campaign.

“I worked with him for four years,” he said. Asked if he thought Trump had changed since the end of his presidency in 2020, Stoltenberg said he could not answer but added: “I think it’s important not to create self-fulfilling prophecies in a way that assuming that a new administration in the United States will mean the end of Nato. There were concerns about that also in 2016. The reality was that Nato is stronger after four years … more troops, high readiness.”

European leaders are growing increasingly concerned about the prospect of Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, taking a controlling position in foreign policy if Trump wins in November. Vance was one of the leading opponents of the new US aid package to Ukraine, held up for months but finally approved in the spring.

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    God I hope so because America is going to hell with a quickness. I feel sorry for y’all Euros having to deal with our schizophrenic insanity.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    4 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Europe must not fall into the trap of creating a “self-fulfilling prophecy” that Nato would die under a second Trump presidency and that the transatlantic bond would be over, the secretary general of the military alliance has said.

    On Wednesday night, Vance signalled that the US’s commanding role in global security would not be a given in a Trump administration, telling party faithful gathered at the Republican national convention in Milwaukee that US soldiers would no longer be sent overseas unnecessarily.

    “The reason why I’m expecting the United States to remain a strong ally … is that the main criticism from President Trump but also from the candidate for vice-president, JD Vance, has not primarily been against Nato.

    Making Europe Trump-proof is high on the list of concerns raised by European leaders gathered for the European Political Community meeting at Blenheim Palace in the UK, amid fears that not only could Trump abandon the US’s position on Ukraine but he could put pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskiy to accept a peace plan involving the loss of Russian-occupied territory.

    The Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said that “Europe will have to do its part by taking a larger share of the costs than we now do” in Nato.

    Støre said proofing Europe against Trump was on the agenda on the sidelines of the conference, opened by Keir Starmer and Zelenskiy who recalled Winston Churchill’s resilience and bravery.


    The original article contains 692 words, the summary contains 236 words. Saved 66%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      The Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, said that “Europe will have to do its part by taking a larger share of the costs than we now do” in Nato.

      they’re boned

      • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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        4 months ago

        The thing that Trump wanted last time he was around was for everyone to buy more weapons, because he thought it unfair that the US spends much more on NATO than the EU. He thought that since the US had a much more developed MIC, this would mean Europe paying a shitton of money to the US.

        The thing he didn’t understand was that on the one hand, the EU MIC is undeveloped deliberately to let the US win at military exports in exchange of them funding our defense. On the other hand, the US MIC does not fill a lot of niches that Europe needs.

        Best example of this is that when he did his big visit to Hungary, he convinced Orbán to up his military spending. What happened though was that he didn’t buy F35s, since Hungary has no infrastructure to field those, he bought Swefish fighters, German helicopters and tanks and an Airbus airliner to ̶t̶̶a̶̶k̶̶e̶̶ ̶̶h̶̶i̶̶s̶̶ ̶f̶̶a̶̶t̶̶ ̶̶a̶̶s̶̶s̶̶ ̶̶t̶̶o̶̶ ̶̶f̶̶o̶̶o̶̶t̶̶b̶̶a̶̶l̶̶l̶̶ ̶̶g̶̶a̶̶m̶̶e̶̶s̶̶ ̶̶ ̶̶act as military transport.

        Military spending up, yet not a cent to the US MIC, instead Hungary supported domestic competition. And that’s Trump-friendly Orbán. Imagine the rest.

        So what the Norwegian guy is saying is “all bets are off, we aren’t sitting this out anymore”.

    • EABOD25@lemm.ee
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      4 months ago

      As a US veteran, I’m pretty confident that NATO will just drop the US