There was no clear breakdown of the 300,000 headline figure among the different NATO members in Europe, who were taken by surprise at the announcement. When one looks at the details, however, it becomes clear that the move was a bit more modest. On the eve of the Madrid summit, NATO’s general secretary Stoltenberg announced that the number of troops the alliance would have in a state of “high readiness” would be increased from 40,000 to 300,000, in a move he described as “the biggest overhaul of our collective defence and deterrence since the Cold War.” In fact, a lot of this was again designed to generate some positive headlines, to make the alliance look strong. The war in Ukraine has been used in order to push for rearmament in Europe and to solidify NATO’s push towards the east, the very strategy which Russia was responding to when it invaded Ukraine in February. No amount of chest-beating NATO statements, nor strategic concept formulations can paper over these cracks, which are based on the material impact of the war on the EU countries, and particularly Germany. In this, Johnson was acting as an agent of Washington (although, even in the US, there are growing concerns about the course of the war), as well as a cheerleader for the hawks in Poland and the Baltic states. The message was clear: the war against the Russian invasion must go on at all costs and we will support you and Russia cannot be allowed to emerge victorious as that would be a serious blow to the prestige of US imperialism. He wanted to make sure there was no vacillation on Zelensky's part. What was the reason for his visit? It is clear as daylight that he wanted to undo any damage that could have been done by the European trio. The visit by this troika was then followed by a surprise visit by Boris Johnson, who left important commitments in Britain, where he was facing a damaging electoral defeat in two parliamentary by-elections, and hurried to Kyiv. In fact, at the earlier G7 meeting, the world’s powers could not even agree on a US proposal to cap the price of Russian oil. The reason is that Europe depends heavily on Russia for the supply of energy and Putin is skilfully using that as leverage. Germany, France and Italy are pushing for negotiations to put an end to the war, even if that means territorial concessions to Russia. Behind the official statements of full support for Ukraine in the war against Russia, the reality of what was discussed behind closed doors was clear. Johnson acted as an agent of Washinton in Ukraine / Image: Number 10įirst it was the turn of Scholz, Macron and Draghi to go to Kyiv. This was revealed starkly two weeks earlier by a series of visits by European dignitaries. Yes, all NATO countries are formally supporting Kyiv, but there are fundamental differences as to the underlying strategy. One of the central questions discussed at the NATO Summit and which also dominated the recent G7 meeting was of course the war in Ukraine. However, in this as in the other matters discussed, when you go beyond the headlines, the real picture emerges, and that is not one of unity, quite the opposite. “We stand together in unity and solidarity and reaffirm the enduring transatlantic bond between our nations,” pompously declared the Summit’s official statement.Įven Macron and Johnson, who have been at loggerheads over Ukraine for months, seemed to have found a new spirit of togetherness, with the British PM apparently agreeing to Macron’s proposal of a European Political Community. “We are totally united,” said the British PM Boris Johnson who had joked about “showing our pecs” to Putin at the earlier G7 summit in Germany. “I think we can all agree that this has been a historic NATO Summit,” said US president Biden. For the first time, the new NATO Strategic Concept document describes China as a “systemic challenge.” This is an official recognition of the relative decline of US imperialism and the threat posed by a rising power.Īs always, the official statement of the Summit and the public declarations of the main participants were full of bravado and optimism. For all the talk about “unity”, the reality is that there is a deep rift between the US and the Germany-France axis. The NATO Summit in Madrid on 28-30 June took place against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
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