Can you ‘Trump-proof’ NATO? As Biden falters, Europeans look to safeguard the military alliance

US President Joe Biden gestures as he boards Air Force One at Harrisburg International Airport en route to Washington following a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, US, July 7, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 08 July 2024
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Can you ‘Trump-proof’ NATO? As Biden falters, Europeans look to safeguard the military alliance

  • Biden’s poor debate performance set off a frenzy about whether the 81-year-old president is fit for office or should step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate

WASHINGTON: Growing skepticism about President Joe Biden’s reelection chances has European leaders heading to the NATO summit in Washington confronting the prospect that the military alliance’s most prominent critic, Donald Trump, may return to power over its mightiest military.
NATO — made up of 32 European and North American allies committed to defending one another from armed attack — will stress strength through solidarity as it celebrates its 75th anniversary during the summit starting Tuesday. Event host Biden, who pulled allies into a global network to help Ukraine fight off Russia’s invasion, has called the alliance the most unified it has ever been.
But behind the scenes, a dominant topic will be preparing for possible division, as the power of far-right forces unfriendly to NATO grows in the US and other countries, including France, raising concerns about how strong support will stay for the alliance and the military aid that its members send to Ukraine.
At the presidential debate, Biden asked Trump: “You’re going to stay in NATO or you’re going to pull out of NATO?” Trump tilted his head in a shrug.
Biden’s poor debate performance set off a frenzy about whether the 81-year-old president is fit for office or should step aside as the Democratic presidential candidate.
Even before the debate, European governments were deep in consultations on what they could do to ensure that NATO, Western support for Ukraine and the security of individual NATO countries will endure should Trump win back the presidency in November and temper US contributions.
Some Americans and Europeans call it “Trump-proofing” NATO — or “future-proofing” it when the political advances of far-right political blocs in Europe are factored in.
This week’s summit, held in the city where the mutual-defense alliance was founded in 1949, was once expected to be a celebration of NATO’s endurance. Now, a European official said, it looks “gloomy.”
There are two reasons for the gloom: Russian advances on the battlefield in the months that Trump-allied congressional Republicans delayed US arms and funding to Ukraine. And the possibility of far-right governments unfriendly to NATO coming to power.
The official spoke to reporters last week on condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations among governments.
Rachel Rizzo, a senior fellow on NATO with the nonpartisan think tank the Atlantic Council, says she has a blunt message for Europeans: “Freaking out about a second Trump term helps no one.”
For allies at the summit, she said, the key will be resisting the temptation to dwell on the details of unprecedented events in US politics and put their heads down on readying Western military aid for Ukraine and preparing for any lessening of US support.
Trump, who before and after his presidency has spoken admiringly of Russian President Vladimir Putin and harshly of NATO, often focuses his complaints on the US share of the alliance’s costs. Biden himself, as a US senator in 1997, warned that if there were any sense other NATO allies were “taking the United States for suckers, the future of the alliance in the next century will be very much in doubt.”
The 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union lulled the West into thinking the Russian threat had been neutralized, leading to military spending cuts. Now, NATO allies are bolstering their forces against any wider aggression by Putin, and a record 23 nations in NATO are meeting defense-spending goals.
One of Trump’s former national security advisers, John Bolton, says Trump in a second term would work to get the US out of NATO. Congress passed legislation last year making that harder, but a president could simply stop collaborating in some or all of NATO’s missions.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Elections in France saw a NATO-adverse far-right party under Marine Le Pen greatly increase the number of seats it holds in parliament. Far-right forces also are gaining in Germany.
Some European officials and analysts say that’s simply the rise and fall of voter allegiance in democracies, which NATO has dealt with before. They point to Poland, where a right-wing party lost power last year and whose people have been among NATO’s most ardent supporters. They also note Italy, where right-wing populist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has won praise as an ally.
In part in response to the United States’ political upheaval, Europeans say they want to “institutionalize” support for Ukraine within NATO, lessening the dependence on the US
European allies also failed to get enough weapons to Ukraine during the delay in a US foreign aid package, outgoing NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg acknowledged in a visit to Washington last month.
That’s “one of the reasons why I believe that we should have a stronger NATO role — is that role in providing the support,” Stoltenberg told reporters.
An initiative likely to be endorsed at the summit is NATO taking more responsibility for coordinating training and military and financial assistance for Ukraine’s forces, instead of the US Europeans also are talking of giving Ukrainians a greater presence within NATO bodies, though there’s no consensus yet on Ukraine joining the alliance.
Europeans say NATO countries are coordinating statements on Ukraine for the summit to make clear, for example, that additional Russian escalation would trigger substantial new sanctions and other penalties from the West. That’s even if the US, under Trump, doesn’t act.
As for NATO security overall, besides European allies upping defense spending, they’re huddling on defense strategies that don’t rely as much on the US There’s also growing emphasis on ensuring each country is capable of fielding armies and fighting wars, the European official said.
The possibility of a less dependable US partner under Trump is generating discussions about Europeans playing a bigger role in NATO’s nuclear deterrence, according to the Poland-based Center for Eastern Studies, a security think tank. The US now plays the determinative role in the nuclear weapons stationed in Europe.
But European countries and Canada, with their smaller military budgets and economies, are years from being able to fill any US-sized hole in NATO.
“If an American president comes into office and says, ‘We’re done with that,’ there is definitely will in Europe to backfill the American role,” said John Deni, a senior fellow on security at the Atlantic Council. “The Brits would jump on it.”
But “even they will acknowledge they do not have the capacity or the capability, and they can’t do it at the speed and the scale that we can,” Deni said. “This notion that we are somehow Trump-proofing or future-proofing the American commitment — either to Ukraine or to NATO — I think that mostly is fantasy.”


Clashes in Mozambique after opposition leader calls for protest

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Clashes in Mozambique after opposition leader calls for protest

MAPUTO: Police in Mozambique fired tear gas and deployed dogs to disperse protesters in the capital Maputo on Thursday, after the opposition called a demonstration against the contested election results.
The southern African nation has been rocked by violence since the Oct. 9 vote won by the Frelimo party, which has been in power for almost 50 years.
Leading opposition leader Venancio Mondlane, who says the results were false and that he won, called for a mass protest on Thursday, saying in an interview that it was a “crucial moment” for the country.
“I feel that there is a revolutionary atmosphere ... that shows that we are on the verge of a unique historical and political transition in the country,” said Mondlane, speaking from an undisclosed location.
The 50-year-old former radio presenter said he could not reveal his whereabouts other than to say he was not in Africa.
Several thousand people took to the streets on Thursday to protest the election result, some throwing rocks and setting up barricades using burning tires and bins. “This is not so much about Venancio (as Mondlane is popularly known). It’s more about change,” said Richard, a protester who asked to be identified only by his first name.
The uprising was to reflect “the voice of the people,” he added.
“Either they change and think about the people, or the country doesn’t move forward.”
Heavily armed riot police and soldiers flanked by tanks dispersed the crowds with tear gas, according to reporters at the scene.
“It’s scary ... we’re all here shaking from time to time, we run away, but it’s going to be worth it,” said Vadi, a woman who also only gave her first name. “We want change, that’s all.”
Shops, banks, schools, and universities were closed in the coastal city, which had around 1 million people.
“Our first objective ... is certainly the restoration of electoral truth,” Mondlane said.
“We want the popular will expressed at the polls on Oct. 9 to be restored.”
He was “waging a struggle” with “national” and “historical purpose,” he added.
“People have realized that it wasn’t possible to bring profound change in Mozambique without taking risks,” he said.
“Now they have to free themselves.”
Mondlane has used social media to rally supporters onto the streets on several occasions for demonstrations that have led to clashes with police.
At least 18 people have been killed in the post-electoral violence, according to Human Rights Watch.
One local NGO, the Center for Democracy and Human Rights, has put the toll at 24.
A police officer was also killed in a protest at the weekend, Defense Minister Cristovao Chume said on Tuesday, warning the army could intervene “to protect the interests of the state.”
“There is an intention to change the democratically established power,” he added.
President Filipe Nyusi is expected to step down early next year at the end of his two-term limit, handing over to Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo, who won the presidential election with 71 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission.
Mondlane, who has lodged a case at the Constitutional Council to request a ballot recount, said that he was “open to a government of national unity.”
The authorities have restricted access to the internet across the country, which HRW said was an apparent effort to “suppress peaceful protests and public criticism of the government.”
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has warned against “unnecessary or disproportionate force.”
Police should “ensure that they manage protests in line with Mozambique’s international human rights obligations,” he said.
The Southern African Development Community has called for an extraordinary summit between Nov. 16 and 20 in part to discuss developments in Mozambique.
Mondlane left the country last month following the unrest.
He initially said he would be at Thursday’s march but on Wednesday told AFP he wouldn’t return after all due to safety concerns.
“I wanted so much to be in Maputo with my people. But unfortunately, I received more than 5,000 messages ... Ninety-nine percent discouraged me from going to Maputo,” he said.
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to be there.”

Russian attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia kills four, wounds 40

Updated 3 min 27 sec ago
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Russian attack on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia kills four, wounds 40

  • Russian forces have stepped up their attacks in Zaporizhzhia in recent days
  • “The death toll as a result of Russia’s strikes on Zaporizhzhia has risen to four,” the emergency services said

KYIV: Russian aerial attacks on the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia on Thursday killed at least four people and wounded another 40, including children, officials said.
Another two were killed in a separate attack on the eastern Donetsk region, strikes that followed a wave of overnight drone attacks, including on the capital Kyiv.
Russian forces have stepped up their attacks in Zaporizhzhia in recent days and are making rapid advances in the industrial territory of Donetsk, both of which the Kremlin says are Russian territory.
“The death toll as a result of Russia’s strikes on Zaporizhzhia has risen to four,” the emergency services said in a statement on social media.
“Forty were wounded, including four children,” governor Ivan Fedorov said in a separate statement.
Officials said earlier that a hospital had been damaged in Zaporizhzhia, which had a pre-war population of more than 700,000 people and lies around 35 kilometers (22 miles) from the nearest Russian positions.
A four-month old girl and boys aged one, five and 15 were wounded in the attacks, Fedorov said.
Officials posted images showing rescue workers pulling victims from the rubble and holding back distressed locals from getting to the destroyed buildings.
The strikes later in the Donetsk region killed two people and wounded five more in the village of Mykolaivka, the region’s governor Vadym Filashkin announced on social media.
“One of the shells hit a five-story building and four buildings nearby were damaged,” he wrote on social media.
He posted a photo of a Soviet-era residential building on fire, dozens of its windows blown out with debris littering the ground beneath it.


Grenade attack targeted Israeli embassy in Denmark: report

Copenhagen Police investigated two explosions near the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen last month. (AP)
Updated 36 sec ago
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Grenade attack targeted Israeli embassy in Denmark: report

  • The grenades landed on the terrace of a house adjacent to the embassy
  • Two Swedes aged 17 and 19 have been detained

COPENHAGEN: Israel’s embassy in Denmark was likely the target of grenades thrown nearby last month, Danish media reported Thursday, citing the pre-indictment of two teenage suspects detained in the case.
Two Swedes aged 17 and 19 went before a judge in Copenhagen who remanded them for another 20 days.
Their pre-indictment, citing investigations, said they were suspected of violating terrorism laws by “throwing hand grenades at the Israeli embassy in Denmark on October 2,” the Ritzau news agency reported.
The grenades landed on the terrace of a house adjacent to the embassy, where they exploded, causing no injuries.
The two suspects were arrested at a Copenhagen railway station hours later initially on suspicion of violating gun laws.
They have since been accused of a terror offense and police, who have arrested a man in his fifties in connection with the incident, are also looking for other accomplices.
“It makes no sense to imagine this is an act they committed alone. There must be accomplices,” Ritzau quoted prosecutor Soren Harbo as saying at the start of the hearing.
The teens deny the accusations.
The case comes against a backdrop of severe tensions in the Middle East, with conflict in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as increasing gang violence with Danish criminal gangs suspected of recruiting underage Swedes to settle scores.


Renowned Indian scholar, philanthropist Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini dies aged 80

Updated 23 min ago
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Renowned Indian scholar, philanthropist Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini dies aged 80

KALABURAGI, India: Dr. Syed Shah Khusro Hussaini, a prominent scholar, educationalist, philanthropist and chancellor of Khaja Banda Nawaz University in India’s Karnataka state, died on Wednesday evening aged 80.

Funeral prayers were held on Thursday evening at the Sharif Mosque. He is survived by his wife, two sons and three daughters.

He completed a Master of Arts in Islamic Studies at McGill University in Canada and was awarded a Ph.D. from Belford University, US, for his research work.

Since 2007 he brought significant changes to the Khaja Education Society on the organizational, administrative and functional levels. He also expanded existing institutions and was instrumental in establishing Khaja Bandanawaz Institute of Medical Sciences at Kalaburagi in 2000.

Through perseverance, he established Khaja Bandanawaz University in August 2018. As vice-president of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board and chancellor of Khaja Banda Nawaz University, he played a vital role in promoting modern and Islamic education in India.

In addition to his administrative skills, Hussaini was known for his deep and scholarly understanding of Sufism. He was awarded the prestigious Karnataka Rajyotsava Award for excellence in education by the government of Karnataka in 2017.

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and other political leaders expressed their condolences over his death.

Putin congratulates Donald Trump on his election victory in first public comments on US vote

Updated 53 min 12 sec ago
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Putin congratulates Donald Trump on his election victory in first public comments on US vote

  • The Kremlin earlier welcomed Trump’s claim that he could negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine
  • ″I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate him on his election as president,” Putin said

SOCHI, Russia: Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Donald Trump on winning this week’s US presidential election and said on Thursday he was ready to speak to Trump, as any ideas on facilitating an end to the Ukraine crisis merited attention.
Putin said he was impressed with how Trump, who decisively defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to secure his return to the White House, handled himself in the moments after an assassination attempt in July, describing Trump as a brave man.