I'm still waiting for Trump to say something about global affairs that hasn't literally been said first by the Kremlin. https://t.co/b6ZLd2h7Ka
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 15, 2017
Hard to say how Trump's talking points on NATO, EU & Russia would be different if they were actually written by the Kremlin.
— ian bremmer (@ianbremmer) January 15, 2017
Bloomberg reports: Donald Trump called NATO obsolete, predicted that other European Union members would follow the U.K. in leaving the bloc, and threatened BMW with import duties over a planned plant in Mexico, according to two European newspapers which conducted a joint interview with the president-elect.
Trump, in an hourlong discussion with Germany’s Bild and the Times of London published on Sunday, signaled a major shift in trans-Atlantic relations, including an interest in lifting U.S. sanctions on Russia as part of a nuclear weapons reduction deal.
Quoted in German by Bild from a conversation held in English, Trump predicted that Britain’s exit from the EU will be a success and portrayed the EU as an instrument of German domination designed with the purpose of beating the U.S. in international trade. For that reason, Trump said, he’s fairly indifferent to whether the EU stays together, according to Bild.
The Times quoted Trump as saying he was interested in making “good deals with Russia,” floating the idea of lifting sanctions that were imposed as the U.S. has sought to punish the Kremlin for its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and military support of the Syrian government.
“They have sanctions on Russia — let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia,’’ Trump said, according to the Times. “For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that’s part of it.’’
Trump’s reported comments leave little doubt that he’ll stick to campaign positions and may in some cases upend decades of U.S. foreign policy, putting him fundamentally at odds with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on issues from free trade and refugees to security and the EU’s role in the world. [Continue reading…]
In the context of the demise of the Soviet Union it is true that NATO is ‘obsolete’. As a vehicle for combating terrorists and Daesh, both Trump objectives, it is not. If NATO is dissolved in 2017 President Trump will almost certainly have to begin difficult bilateral negotiations with at least Germany and Turkey to maintain the US airbases at Ramstein and Incirlik.
The Baltic states don’t see NATO as obsolete.