The Global Story: Does Trump’s return threaten the future of Nato?
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Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Alex Ritson with your weekly bonus from The Global Story, which brings you a single story with depth and insight from the BBC's best journalists. There's a new episode every weekday. Just search for The Global Story wherever you get your pods and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode. Here's my colleague Katja Adler.
the re-election of Donald Trump marks what's perhaps the most uncertain moment in the history of the NATO military alliance. Well, that is, since the last time he was president. But that was before large-scale warfare returned to Europe with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, aided militarily and otherwise by North Korea, Iran and China. NATO is a transatlantic military alliance and it's largely funded by the United States. But America first Donald Trump thinks it's a very bad deal.
NATO was busted until I came along. I said, everybody's going to pay. They said, well, if we don't pay, are you still going to protect us? I said, absolutely not.
With Ukraine on the back foot against Moscow and European security in jeopardy, NATO has got a new chief, Mark Rutter, who's been dubbed the Trump whisperer. In his first major speech in his new job, he's called for NATO members to switch to a wartime mindset and seriously boost defence spending. Can he save NATO by persuading the incoming US president to stay on board?
With me today is the BBC's defence correspondent, Jonathan Beale. Hi, Jonathan.
Hi, Katia, from a cold, a very cold Dnipro here in eastern Ukraine.
Jonathan, where you are in Ukraine, I mean, it's a very, very tense situation. I mean, we're talking about survival here. So are people paying attention to a new Secretary General of NATO or a speech he might choose to give?
Well, Ukraine is watching closely. It's watching closely because all its weapons, pretty much all the ammunition it's getting at the moment is coming from NATO members in Europe and also the US, obviously, which is its biggest supplier. It's also watching closely because Ukraine has made very clear it wants to be a member of NATO. It wants the security guarantees that NATO membership gives. So it's watching what Mark Ritter, NATO Secretary General, is saying very closely. And it's still hoping that somehow it will be eventually a member of NATO.
Yes, because there's a lot of talk right now, isn't there, about possible ceasefires. We'll talk about Donald Trump returning to the White House in a minute and what that could mean. And Ukraine is insisting on security guarantees. It believes that comes from NATO. I mean, Jonathan, just tell us a little bit, a potted history about NATO. It was born after the Second World War, wasn't it?
Born after the Second World War. It is always important to say that NATO is a defensive alliance. That's what it says it is. But it was created because of the concerns of the expanding Soviet empire. It is there to deter any aggressor. And of course, key to the whole NATO membership is Article 5, which essentially says that an attack on one ally or an attack on one member is interpreted as an attack on all. So it gives those countries that are members of the alliance some security guarantees, the kind of security guarantees, obviously, that Ukraine would like as well.
And I mean, when we talk about the allies, I mean, it's a transatlantic military alliance, mainly European, but we have Canada and, of course, the United States, which, and we'll get to this in a moment, of course, foots most of the bill.
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