U.S. President Donald Trump and Russia's President Vladimir Putin talk during the family photo session at the APEC Summit in Danang, Vietnam November 11, 2017. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo
Rachel Rizzo Bacevich Fellow, Defense One/CNAS: What to Expect from Trump’s Marathon Week of Diplomacy
Allies are right to be worried.
Donald Trump’s first full NATO summit is expected to be contentious, if not downright hostile. The U.S. president’s sole goal for Brussels appears to be hammering allies on their defense spending, and it’s even less clear what he wants to do with the remainder of his Europe trip, which includes meetings with a severely weakened Theresa May and Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. What should Europe watchers expect?
Trump’s animosity toward some of the United States’ closest allies and partners in Europe is straining the multinational institutions upon which the U.S.-European relationship is built. He has had borderline obsessive focus on NATO allies’ defense budgets since the beginning of his presidency, and has no problem railing on allies to spend more. Recently, Trump sent a harsh letter to some of the allies excoriating them for not spending enough, saying it is “increasingly difficult to justify to American citizens why some countries do not share NATO’s collective security.” When allies meet in Brussels, more harsh words are to be expected.
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WNU Editor: What do I expect will happen from President Trump this week? He is going to make a number of NATO leaders nervous and upset when the NATO summit is over. With U.K. Prime Minister May .... her days are politically numbered, and while she may like to believe that the talks will be positive .... British PM May looking forward to positive talks with Trump (Reuters), my take is that President Trump and his wife are more interested in meeting the Queen. The Trump - Putin summit will be focusing on this .... The issues on the table when Trump and Putin meet (Reuters). I expect these talks will end on a very positive note.
