LONDON, Dec 5 (NNN-XINHUA) – Leaders of 29 member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), gathered north of London Wednesday, for a summit that has been dogged by squabbles, differences and the hurling of insults.
A tranquil golf-resort hotel in Hertfordshire was transformed into a fortress, to enable the participants to meet in a heavily secure zone, in what had originally planned as a 70th birthday bash for the alliance.
Arguments, however, set the tone for the much-awaited NATO summit, with a report that, a video has emerged, appearing to show world leaders joking at the NATO summit about U.S. President, Donald Trump.
The highly choreographed anniversary gathering, intended to show unity, has been unable to hide deep differences between member states, BBC’s defence correspondent commented.
British media reported that top of the agenda for the showpiece meeting would be Turkey’s threat, to block a NATO plan for the defence of the Baltics and Poland, unless NATO denounces the Syrian Kurds, and endorses Turkish incursion in Oct, into northeast Syria.
Ahead of the three-hour summit, NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said, a solution to the issue had still not been found.
He told a media briefing, “I’m confident that we will be able to find a solution to the issue related to updating the revised defence plans.”
This came after Macron’s recent comment that NATO is “brain dead.”
The host, British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, glossing over the squabbles, said, “There is far, far more that unites us than divides us, and I think one thing every leader here is absolutely resolved upon is the vital importance of NATO for our collective security.”– NNN-XINHUA