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Macron, NATO chief hold talks in ‘brain death’ row
PARIS, Nov 28, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg will on
Thursday confront Emmanuel Macron in Paris over the French president’s claim
the alliance is suffering “brain death”, a charge that has set the stage for
a testy NATO summit next week.
Macron delivered his damning assessment in an interview earlier this month
with The Economist magazine, in which he lamented the lack of strategic
coordination between Europe and the United States.
As further evidence that NATO is in decline, Macron cited NATO member
Turkey’s recent intervention against a Western-backed Kurdish militia that
had been leading the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.
Stoltenberg immediately defended the 70-year-old alliance, which binds the
US to defending Europe in the event of attack and vice-versa, and said he
would travel to Paris to seek clarification from Macron.
“I think that’s the best way to address any differences, to sit down and
discuss them and to fully understand the messages and the motivations,” he
said.
Macron’s remarks set the tone for a fractious gathering of NATO leaders in
London on December 3-4.
A Macron aide said that on Thursday the president would discuss with
Stoltenberg “the best way of raising the main issues in the current debate on
NATO” at the summit.
These included “strengthening the unity of the alliance and the
coordination of allies’ actions” and “Europeans assuming more
responsibilities within the alliance”, the aide said.
Macron would also consult other NATO leaders in the run-up to the meeting
in London, he added.
– ‘No coordination whatsoever’ –
French officials have argued that by painting a picture of a moribund
NATO, Macron, who has championed the idea of Europe taking charge of its own
security, was just speaking the truth, however unpalatable.
But his remarks drew widespread criticism among allies.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned his “sweeping judgments”, while
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that “European unity cannot replace
transatlantic unity”. At a ceremony Wednesday to sign a $1-billion contract
to modernise NATO’s fleet of AWACS reconnaissance planes, Stoltenberg again
rejected the idea the alliance was outdated.
“NATO is adapting, NATO is agile, NATO is active and the modernisation of
the AWACS aircraft is demonstrating the agility and the strength of NATO,” he
argued.
But in the Economist interview Macron said there was “no coordination
whatsoever of strategic decision-making between the United States and its
NATO allies”.
Reflecting on the “aggressive action” by Turkey in Syria, he declared:
“What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO.”
Macron also urged a rapprochement with Moscow, saying NATO needed to
revisit its “unarticulated assumption is that the enemy is still Russia”.
His remarks troubled NATO members in eastern and central Europe, notably
Poland, that shook off Soviet domination at the end of the Cold War.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 0929 hrs