The Story
The NATO summit started today. Get your international hats on.
Give me the deets.
Two days. Brussels. And 29 member countries that look out for each other's geopolitical interests. This year, they'll be tackling issues like the fight against terrorism and burden-sharing. The US and many NATO allies have been on the outs lately – thanks to things like tariffs and the Iran nuclear deal. Also President Trump has a few issues with the group.
Like what?
That many NATO countries aren't pulling their weight when it comes to defense spending. And Trump feels like the US has been carrying the team. He's been very vocal that he'd like to see them step it up. Today, Trump kicked off his day saying 'seriously, step it up.' And added that Germany is "captive to Russia" when it comes to energy.
How's all that gone over?
Eh, not great. European allies are worried about Trump's priorities and are on the edge of their seats for how these next two days go. Meanwhile, former US Sec of State Madeleine Albright and 15 other former foreign ministers sent Trump a letter asking him to play nice with Western allies and to avoid getting cozy with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Wait, why are we talking about Putin?
Because Trump's making a visit to Finland next week to meet with the Russian prez. Unclear what's on the agenda, but Trump says it "may be the easiest" of his overseas meetings. That includes his visit to the UK to catch up with PM Theresa May. She's dealing with some light government turmoil right now after two top Brexit leaders quit on her. So it should be an interesting chat.
Anything else?
Yesterday, Trump announced he was imposing another round of tariffs on China – this time on up to $200 billion of the country's goods. China said 'not cool, man' and will most likely retaliate. Tit for tat.
theSkimm
Trump has shown that he's not afraid to peace out of an international org that he doesn't think supports US interests. And he's had a lot of beef with NATO. All eyes will be on if these countries can work together to keep this decades-old alliance intact.
PS: World organizations like to go by their acronyms (looking at you, NATO) – we Skimm'd them all for you so you never have to miss a beat.
|