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The head of the group poses for a photo during NATO’s 75th anniversary celebration ceremony at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC (July 9, 2024)

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs

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Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs

The head of the group poses for a photo during NATO’s 75th anniversary celebration ceremony at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC (July 9, 2024)

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photographs

The North Atlantic Treaty Group, or NATO, has been dysfunctional for 75 years now. The alliance of political and armed forces is now 32 strong.

NATO summit begins this era in Washington DC Imagine this Host Mary Louise Kelly sat down with government diplomats from 8 Nordic and Baltic countries before Zenith formally launched in a panel discussion hosted by the Atlantic Council.

Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania put together the people of a regional bloc called the Nordic-Baltic 8 – 8 small to medium-sized countries with their much tighter neighbor, Russia. In that sense, they talk about the peak of this era as an accent.

Sweden and Finland are the latest NATO members to join following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said he feels safer in the alliance:

“Sweden joining NATO was coming home. It was the end of a process that had started in 1994, when we became a member of the Partnership for Peace. And when we now became a full member on March 7, It was really a great achievement.”

Finnish State Secretary Pasi Rajala said that Finland has long known about taking care of its own security, so having people from NATO feels like a psychological change:

“To understand that we are no longer alone, that we are this amazing group of allies and the United States and other allies. We felt safe before, but now we are even more secure.”

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Security Priorities.

Recently, many of the Nordic-Baltic 8 have made a point of spending extra on security, as they see what is happening in Ukraine with concern to their own countries.

International ministers knew that at this age they were speaking to American citizens who could no longer see Russia’s conflict in Ukraine as a government priority. However Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis is following what is happening in eastern Ukraine very closely:

“The entire security landscape is being shaped in Kharkiv,” he says. “The Lithuanian security landscape is being shaped in Kharkiv. The way the war will continue, the way Ukraine will try to resist the Russians and Is able to push back – it will have a direct impact on the security of my country.”

Russia’s opportunity to disrupt the global rules-based format could also be a big factor for Iceland’s international minister, Thordis Kolbrunn Reykfjörður Gylfadottir. Iceland has a smaller population than any surrounding region of the US and is the only NATO member without military status; It has become dependent on that form.

By contrast, the US spends more on its military than every other country in the world by a larger margin – and is the wealthiest and strongest country in the alliance. He and other ministers made the case that it was also in America’s interests to be a good best friend.

“I think America also needs to recognize that paying insurance is always a better business than not doing it at all, and then ending up in a situation that is much more dramatic on all fronts, currency and life.” And life is more expensive in both but a rules-based order and that’s really where the United States’ interest lies.”

American Politics and NATO.

With political doubt and instability in the US and following the presidential election, Kelly asked diplomats to what extent US domestic politics might affect the alliance. Sweden’s International Minister Billstrom says they all agree that America’s participation in NATO is inevitable.

“Also, I think that regardless of the outcome of the U.S. elections, we all take our responsibilities very seriously,” he says. “And also, on a side note, the European media sometimes have a tendency to focus too much on the election result for the White House, but we all know that Congress and the Senate have a say when it comes to There’s a lot to do with foreign security policy. And a president has a lot of powers, but you’re not a Chinese or Russian president. You have to think about what Congress thinks about it.”

When pressed, Billstrom said that the US Congress had recently withheld support for Ukraine for months in a partisan battle, but attributed this to the supposed functioning of independence, and in his personal meetings with both Republicans, NATO Missed a dozen assists for the challenge. Democrats in Congress.

Nordic-Baltic 8 made dozens of uses to provide security assistance to Ukraine. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has insisted that he no longer prioritizes aid to Ukraine, and has threatened to pull the US out of the alliance if other member states do not spend more on their security. When Kelly asked if he saw a desire to “Trump-proof” NATO if re-elected, Denmark’s foreign minister said whoever is in the White Area has an interest in moving Europe forward. Its security features:

Lars Løkke Rasmussen said, “Instead of discussing whether we can Trump-proof things, we should discuss whether we can future-proof things.” “And that will give us an edge over whoever is in the White House in the future.”