Biden administration’s pledges to consult and collaborate win praise after four years of Trump’s bludgeoning.
It was three days late for Valentine’s, but the mood among NATO allies was lovey-dovey after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attended his first meeting of allied defense ministers on Wednesday.
Austin, a retired four-star U.S. Army general, weighed in during each of the two virtual gatherings of the North Atlantic Council and, according to diplomats and officials, played all the right mood music by expressing a willingness to consult and full-throated commitment to NATO’s principle of collective defense.
Under other circumstances, that might seem as ho-hum as a date night during the pandemic. But after four years of being badgered and berated by U.S. President Donald Trump, suddenly Washington sounded like a friend again — and that in itself felt refreshing and remarkable, participants in the meeting said.
“Evening falls over #NATO HQ,” tweeted Belgium’s NATO Ambassador Pascal Heyman, along with a picture of the giant glass headquarters building glittering just after sunset. “Successful first day of the Defense Ministers Council concluded. Highlight was a strong @SecDef statement to turn a new page, revitalize alliances, and a reaffirmation of the ironclad Art 5 guarantee,” he added, referring to Article 5, the treaty provision that proclaims an attack on one NATO ally to be an attack on all.
Many allies had said the worst part of dealing with the Trump administration was the sheer unpredictability of it, and the constant fear of unilateral decisions that could turn the world upside down.
The Pentagon provided its own readout of Austin’s remarks, which made clear those days — and those fears — are over, now that U.S. President Joe Biden is in charge.
“The Secretary reaffirmed the President’s message that the United States intends to revitalize our relationship with the NATO Alliance and that our commitment to Article 5 remains ironclad,” the Pentagon statement said. “Secretary Austin referred to NATO as the bedrock of enduring trans-Atlantic security and said the Alliance serves as the bulwark of our shared values of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law.”
Austin’s remarks followed on an op-ed published in the Washington Post on Wednesday in which he made similar points. “We are ready to consult together, decide together and act together,” he wrote.
In contrast to Trump’s repeated bashing of allies over defense spending, and his repeated boasts of forcing them to pay up, Austin offered a message of thanks and urged them to keep up the good work, noting that a commitment to aim for spending 2 percent of GDP was made jointly at a NATO leaders’ summit in Wales in 2014, when Barack Obama was president. He emphasized that contributions are also measured by how they are used, not just by their size.
https://www.politico.eu/article/lloyd-austin-charms-allies-during-nato-debut/