President Trump is facing up to the real challenge of our age – reshaping international relations
3 min read
Lord Balfe argues that President Trump should tell the European nations to "pay for your own quarrels".
At the moment still reeling from the Brexit result in the UK and despite the Prime Ministers seemingly successful visit to Washington there is genuine puzzlement about Donald Trump, however there is also a sense in which maybe the World and in particular Europe needs Donald Trump.
The post war World has been dominated by the United States of America yet visibly for the last twenty years it has been a power that is gradually being overtaken not only by China but also by other rising economies such as India, Nigeria, Brazil, Turkey to mention just a few. In threatening or offering, depending on your viewpoint, to reshape international relations Donald Trump is probably facing up to the real challenge of our age.
In Europe we have depended since the Second World War on the Americans for our security yet we have never been prepared to pay for it, the United States spends three point three per cent of its GDP on defence expenditure, far ahead of most of Europe, indeed only five European NATO members have reached the two per cent which was the target set at a summit some years ago.
In the Baltic region, which is probably the most threatened from Russia, only Estonia reaches two per cent with Latvia and Lithuania, which regularly plead that they want help with defence, spending just one point one per cent each of their GDP on defending themselves. All three countries could do much more to integrate their Russian speaking populations but make little efforts to do so.
It is little wonder that President Trump feels that those who wish to be defended should at least show some commitment to helping themselves, after all why should the tax payers of say Michigan pay three times as much as the tax payers of Latvia when it is Latvia that is under much more threat than Michigan.
President Trump also looks at Europe and sees many unsolved points of tension, it seems that European countries are very fond of falling out with Russia but not of following through, so if he wants to reset relations this should be welcomed and the most positive resetting he could do is to say to European nations “pay for your own quarrels”.
In some areas such as the ongoing dispute about Crimea we are in a ridiculous position. Russia knows we can do nothing but we keep up a pretence that sanctions will somehow lead Russia to leave Crimea. Dream on.
The time has come to recognise that the Yeltsin years saw Russia comprehensively beaten back across its whole area of interest. Yeltsin destroyed the Russian State and its pride much more than Gorbachov. Putin is trying to rebuild Russia and a key part of that is his bid to reconstruct the Russian version of the Monroe doctrine. In other words it has legitimate interests in its near abroad and we would do well to recognise that fact and come to a new understanding that reflects reality. Our number one priority in my view is the defence of the EU states, and the need to get some sensible policies in the Baltic States which in return for defence guarantees must up their defence expenditure and treat their minorities better.
Lord Balfe is a Conservative peer.
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