Trump to press for increased defence spending at NATO summit
By
Johannes Stern
25 May 2017
As part of his first foreign trip as US president, Donald Trump will participate in Thursday’s NATO meeting in Brussels, before traveling to the G7 summit in Sicily over the weekend.
Trump’s visit takes place in the context of a deep political, economic and social crisis, to which the ruling classes on both sides of the Atlantic are responding with a sharp shift to the right. While the multi-billionaire US president is slashing social spending in the US, initiating a massive military build-up and trampling democratic rights under foot, the European heads of government are seeking to do the same.
In France, the Elysee Palace announced Wednesday after a meeting of the security cabinet that the state of emergency would be extended under newly-elected President Emmanuel Macron until November. In Britain, following the terrorist attack in Manchester, military units have been mobilised to back up the police, and in Germany the main parties are preparing a law-and-order election campaign, the centrepiece of which will be the strengthening of the state apparatus and militarism.
The summit will follow a morning meeting between Trump, European Union (EU) Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk. The US president was welcomed to the Vatican Wednesday by Pope Francis for a 20-minute private audience.
The main issue at the NATO meeting will be the implementation of an agreement from a 2014 summit in Wales, at which the NATO members agreed to increase defence spending by 2024 to 2 percent of GDP.
Under pressure above all from the US government, this agreement is now to be concretised. According to a report in the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, a paper has…