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NATO divisions grow ahead of high-level summit

Thursday, 21 November 2019 2:37 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 21 November 2019 2:43 AM ]

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a press conference as part of a Foreign Ministers meeting at the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) headquarters in Brussels on November 20, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

Jerome Hughes

Press TV, Brussels

As usual NATO foreign affairs ministers posed for photographs as they attended their latest meeting here in Brussels but very unusually key players in this 70-year-old alliance are no longer even pretending to show unity.

France's Emmanuel Macron has said NATO is experiencing "brain death." His problem relates to unilateral actions taken by NATO kingpin, the United States.

Ahead of a NATO summit in England early next month Donald Trump is apply even more pressure on members of the 29-nation alliance to increase military spending. However, due to Trump's mixed messages, experts say trust between NATO members has broken down.

At Wednesday's NATO meeting US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said increased spending is necessary because of threats from Russia, China and Iran. Critics of the alliance claim this is absurd as last year alone NATO's military budget was 20 times larger than Russia's.

The main threats currently facing NATO are internal rather than external, according to many high-profile political commentators. Therefore, they say the NATO summit due to take place in just under two week's time in London is absolutely crucial in terms of seeing if the alliance's leaders can show genuine unity.

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