Spruds: If everything with NATO was fine, we would not need to keep reminding about this so frequently

  • 2017-02-20
  • BNS/TBT Staff

RIGA - If it is constantly repeated that NATO as an alliance continues to function, this means that something is not completely right, the director of the Latvian Institute of International Affairs Andris Spruds told.

Spruds pointed out that the participation of U.S. Vice President Mike Pence in this weekend's Munich Security Conference is important, but that this importance should not be exaggerated.

''This was the first direct meeting with the leaders of the new U.S. administration, and a vice president is an important person, thus this was a symbolic, diplomatic and political signal that the United States is a cooperation partner of the Baltics, and that this cooperation will continue. On the flip side, we should not exaggerate the importance of this meeting, as the United States does not evaluate its external goals taking into account what the Baltic countries think,'' Spruds emphasized.

''This meeting will not decide the alliance's solidarity and trustworthiness in the near and further future. More fundamental are the tendencies and powers which will influence these relations,'' he added.

Speaking about fundamental challenges, Spruds admitted that we are living in two realities at the moment - the European and U.S. realities and that coordinating them will be a tough task. ''Europeans live in a reality in which the U.S. has been in charge and undertakes the global policing role, and was a shoulder in which allies could always count on. With the exception of the British and the French, the rest of Europe counted on the U.S. to do everything for them,'' he said.

As another challenge, Spruds mentioned the new U.S. President Donald Trump. ''If we before always first thought of the United States when speaking about NATO, now we must first think about Trump. The U.S. president lives in his own reality, where the earth does not orbit around the sun, but around Trump. He is completely concentrated on himself,'' the expert points out.

Spruds said that in such a situation, the Baltic states cannot ignore the requirement to increase their defense spending to two percent of GDP. ''Other countries can ask why they must increase defense spending, but the Baltics cannot. The fact that Estonia has reached this level, while Latvia and Lithuania plan on achieving this level next year, is very important and correct,'' the expert emphasized.