2024 NATO Summit
5 minute read
Within the past week, NATO leaders met in Washington D.C., and celebrated the 75th anniversary of the organization. They also conducted summit and discussed incredibly important things in regards to national and international defense.
The most important member of NATO is undoubtably the United States. Some hesitation by other prominent NATO members has been expressed facing the deep political uncertainty of the United States.
The eyes have been on Biden to see how he will handle the amount of public speaking and leadership required for this conference. Biden was hoping to use the summit to bolster faith in himself facing many calls to withdraw from the presidential race. Biden seemed to be doing well, though he did have a moment where his mistook Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he did correct. Later at a conference after the summit, he mistakenly refered to Vice President Kamala Harris as Vice President Trump.
There was worry around Trump’s potential for being reelected as well. The former president frequently questioned the organization’s relevance and criticized members of the alliance who were not able to meet the 2% threshold for spending (2% of the countries’ GDP). He has also threatened to leave NATO if that spending is not met.
As for the actual results of the summit, a big focus was Ukraine. The allies announced significant increases in the measures being taken to assist Ukraine. There will be a new commitee which will assist in coordinating “equipment, training, and force development work” and it will be called the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU). The goals will be to fend of current Russian aggression and prevent further aggression in the future. There will also be a NATO Senior Representative place in Kyiv, which will help to foster relations between NATO and Ukraine, as it has been decided that Ukraine is on the path to becoming a part of NATO soon. Finally, financial support of minimum forty billion euros will be given to Ukraine.
Another big topic was defense spending, as the United States is by far the biggest funder of NATO. The hope is to get the countries who are not meeting their 2% mark to that point. As of this past summit, 23 countries did meet their defensive spending mark, up from 9 in 2021, so progress is possible. One country in particular which is in the spotlight is Canada, which is a much more wealthy country capable of meeting their budget.
In the midst of the summit, concerns regarding Asia-Pacific nations were addressed as growing wariness of the connections between Russia and China became pronounced.
Overall, NATO made updates to many policies and renewed their efforts to keep Russia at bay within the Russia/Ukraine conflict. This is increasingly important going into the 2024 elections, as Former President Trump has made several remarks about cutting Ukraine spending and possibly even pulling out of NATO.
If you are interested in reading further about the summit, the White Huse put out a Fact Sheet that covers all of the updates made at the summit. Read it here: Click Here