The July 7-8 summit of imperialist and other governments in the NATO military alliance exposed deepening rifts between the U.S. rulers and their main rivals in Europe, despite President Donald Trump claiming there was “a lot of unity.”
The gathering in Ankara, Turkey, was held as ruling classes on all sides are rearming and looking for reliable allies for future wars. Their race to maximize profits by grabbing markets and strategic resources from competing capitalist blocs has accelerated sharply since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the spread of wars across the Middle East.
Washington is seeking to shore up U.S. imperialism’s weakening global dominance, embroiled in an on-and-off war in the Middle East. Just before the summit Trump berated “allied” governments of the U.K., Germany, France and Italy for their refusal to let U.S. warplanes use their bases and airspace to bomb Iran. In the middle of the summit he announced the ceasefire deal with Tehran was over and U.S. forces were launching renewed airstrikes.
Greenland “should be controlled by the United States, not by Denmark,” Trump told the NATO meeting in the face of opposition from the heads of imperialist governments in Europe. Greenland is “surrounded by Chinese ships and Russian ships,” he said. Trump has long accused Washington’s NATO “allies” of being unable to defend Greenland in the face of the expanding military presence in the Arctic by Moscow and Beijing.
To stress its dominance, the Pentagon recently shifted authority over its military base in Greenland from its European Command in Germany to its Northern Command based in Colorado.
Days before the summit, governments in NATO agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of their gross domestic product, as demanded by Trump, with the exception of the Spanish rulers. Madrid is “a terrible partner in NATO,” Trump complained.
Last year, his administration’s National Security Strategy document announced a shift of U.S. military forces away from Europe.
The Pentagon announced May 1 it plans to withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany. This will reduce the U.S. troop presence in Europe to the level it was before Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Some 80,000 U.S. troops in Europe are stationed in more than 40 military bases, from the U.K. to Turkey. They remain key to asserting U.S. power on the continent and around the world.
During the summit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz struck a deal with Trump to buy U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles. Berlin is accelerating its own weapons manufacturing and armed forces expansion after decades of relying on its economic clout, not military power, to assert its domination within the European Union.
Trump praised the summit’s host, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In recent years the Turkish rulers have expanded their leverage in Syria and advanced military ties with Moscow. In 2020 Washington sanctioned NATO “ally” Turkey after Erdogan ordered the purchase of S-400 missile systems from Moscow. But today Washington is keen to bolster relations with the Turkish government as it drives to extend its reach in the Middle East.
Trump is now weighing selling advanced F-35 stealth fighters to Ankara, but this is strongly opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Turkish rulers are seeking to replace the weakened Iranian regime as a key power in the Middle East, while voicing support for Hamas and calling for an end to the existence of Israel.
White House shift on Ukraine
The day before the NATO summit began, Ukrainian drones flew over 1,500 miles, evading Moscow’s air defenses, to hit Russia’s largest oil refinery at Omsk in Siberia. In recent months all 10 of Russia’s largest refineries have been struck, disabling much of the country’s refining capacity and causing rampant fuel shortages.
At the summit, Trump announced his backing for Ukraine’s drone strikes deep inside Russia.
In response, Moscow is escalating its deadly aerial assaults on Ukrainian population centers, with devastating consequences. Ukraine has run critically low on U.S.-made Patriot rockets, which are its main defense against ballistic missiles. Moscow is on course to set a monthly record high, firing 70 ballistic missiles July 1-14. Ukraine’s air defenses were only able to intercept nine of them. Kyiv has appealed to governments in Europe for more Patriot interceptors.
Trump said Ukrainian manufacturers could be licensed to make the U.S. interceptors, but getting production going would take years. Washington’s actions, as always, are not intended to offer unconditional support to Ukraine’s defense of its sovereignty, but to gain leverage to advance the U.S. capitalist rulers’ own interests in the region and worldwide.