French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has expressed his concern over what he has described as NATO members’ ‘disjointed’ behaviour, which he said has had a negative impact on the bloc’s effectiveness as an alliance.
“We have stated that the alliance in a state of political confusion,” Le Drian said, speaking to lawmakers in the French Senate on Thursday.
According to the foreign minister, “there is a sense of uncertainty about the strength of ties inside the alliance” among member nations.
US Turning Its Back on European Allies
Le Drian listed several examples of actions he said have helped lead to this situation, saying that among them were the US’s attempts under the past two administrations to ‘pivot’ toward Asia. The Trump administration’s move to withdraw troops from northeastern Syria, “without preliminary consultations” with its NATO allies, was a second example, while the Turkish offensive against the Syrian Kurdish militias creating “another problem,” the top French diplomat argued.
“[Turkey’s] offensive operations were directed against coalition partners in the fight against the Islamic State [Daesh*] terrorist organisation,” Le Drian said, adding that Ankara’s move has caused questions about solidarity among allies.
Furthermore, the foreign minister suggested that when it comes to European defence, the bloc’s continental members still weren’t doing enough “in terms of operations and defence spending.”
“For these reasons, France…advocates in favour of participating in strategic debates regarding the situation in NATO, and its goals. During the ministerial meetings of November 20 ahead of the [December 3-4 NATO] summit, my German colleague Heiko Maas and I spoke in favour of a discussion of these strategic questions at the summit, so that there would be a place not only for historical reflection, but for specific debates,” Le Drian said.
70th Anniversary Celebrations
NATO celebrated its 70th anniversary earlier this month, with the heads of state and government from the bloc’s 28 members meeting in London to mark the commemorations. Established in the aftermath of the Second World War to combat what was seen at the time as the Soviet threat to Europe, the alliance has experienced mission drift since the early 1990s, when the Warsaw Pact was dissolved and the USSR itself disappeared from the geopolitical map.
In recent months, a growing rift has been observed in relations between bloc members France and Germany, which have been discussing the concept of a ‘common European defence’, the United States, which has demanded allied nations increase defence spending to at least 2 percent of GDP, and Turkey, which launched a military operation in northern Syria in October against Syrian Kurdish militia which most of the alliance considers as their common allies against Daesh.
Late last month, President Macron questioned the wisdom of designating Russia and China’s the alliance’s “enemies,” saying he didn’t think this was necessary, since terrorism was the main common enemy which has affected “all of our countries.” Regarding Russia, Macron suggested that NATO needs to have a “lucid, robust and demanding dialogue” with that country. Macron’s comments followed remarks he made this past summer, in which he suggested that Russia and the European Union could work together to create a new European security architecture.
*A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
