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Commentary: Widening cracks of transatlantic alliance
Last Updated: 2018-07-14 07:00 | Xinhua
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Despite a U.S.-backed declaration and an unscheduled last-minute press conference, in which President Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment to NATO, cracks in the transatlantic bond were evident during the alliance's two-day summit here.

Even before touching down in Brussels, Trump criticized NATO allies in a barrage of tweets, focusing on his pet subjects of high trade barriers and low defense spending by Europe.

Once on the ground, it was even clearer that the current U.S. administration is misaligned with Europe on almost every important policy.

On defense spending, Trump elevated the drama by demanding that NATO members "must ultimately go to 4 percent" of their gross domestic product. Many NATO nations are already struggling to meet the current 2 percent defense spending target set for the year 2024.

On the Iran nuclear deal, by which Europe and the rest of the world still stands, Trump was unapologetic and immodest: "At a certain point they (Iran) are going to call me. They're going to say, 'Let's make a deal.'"

NATO is an organization devoted to collective security, but for Trump the trip was as much about the European Union and trade as about NATO and defense.

"Immigration is taking over Europe," Trump warned his counterparts in NATO in a self-proclaimed "loud and clear" manner.

He issued further warnings to the EU on trade. "If they don't negotiate in good faith, we'll do something about all the millions of cars that are coming into our country," Trump said.

His deviation from the main NATO agenda of security was only matched by his conflation of various other issues.

Such stark contrast in policies on so many subjects across the Atlantic underlines recent moves by European nations to forge closer military ties among themselves.

The prospect of Europe relying on itself for defense would not be received well by the United States, whose current strategy might best be described as "leadership by intimidation".

The annual NATO summit used to be an opportunity to reaffirm unity among close allies and resolve differences in private. However, over the last two years, it has appeared to evolve into a platform for public sparring by allies, amplified by the social media megaphone.

At the end of the day, even the joint NATO declaration and Trump's parting message of the alliance being "very unified, very strong, no problem" could hardly paper over its deepening divisions.

(Editor:王苏)

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Commentary: Widening cracks of transatlantic alliance
Source:Xinhua | 2018-07-14 07:00
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