00:00 We're going to cross then to Brussels, talk to our correspondent who joins us from there, Dave Keating.
00:05 Dave, a pretty historic day there then.
00:07 It is a very historic day. It was 75 years ago that the Washington Treaty was founded,
00:16 establishing NATO. We're about halfway through the ceremony marking this occasion. We had the
00:23 military band playing the official NATO hymn, which is Esprit du Corps, which is a traditional
00:28 military song about military cohesion, about soldiers being one group together.
00:34 The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, just finished his speech in which he had the most
00:40 direct criticism of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his America First
00:47 policy that we've yet heard. He said that yes, Europe needs America for its defense,
00:53 but America also needs Europe. He was pointing out what Europe brings to the alliance and saying that
00:58 America is stronger because of what Europe brings to the table. He said he rejects the philosophy
01:05 of America alone. He said it's a failing ideology for America. Those were the most direct words we've
01:11 yet heard from him. He really had to address the elephant in the room because, as he pointed out,
01:17 NATO is more relevant today than it has been in the past three decades because of Russia's invasion
01:23 of Ukraine. But at the same time, it is also more under threat than it has been in decades,
01:28 not from without, but from within, from Donald Trump and from Republicans in the United States
01:34 who are casting aspersions on the existence of NATO and whether America should be part of it.
01:40 So this anniversary comes at a very sensitive time for the alliance.
01:44 Bearing all that in mind, Dave, it does come, doesn't it, as foreign ministers
01:49 really trying to shore up support for Ukraine?
01:52 Yeah, I mean, that sensitivity of the alliance is under display right now because of what the
02:00 foreign ministers, all 32 of them, are discussing at this summit. So they're talking about this plan
02:06 from Stoltenberg to move the coordination of Ukraine's military aid from Washington to here
02:14 in Brussels. And that is very clearly because Republicans in the U.S. Congress have been
02:19 blocking any further U.S. military aid to Ukraine for months now. And Donald Trump has said he would
02:25 cut helping Ukraine and he would, quote, end the war in one day, presumably by forcing Ukraine
02:32 to surrender to Russia. So the concern is that you can't keep having the short-term funding
02:37 and the coordination can't be done from Washington because Washington's future commitment to helping
02:42 Ukraine is now under doubt. So this plan would set up a $100 billion fund that would be long-term
02:48 over many years and would be coordinated by NATO itself here in Brussels and no longer under the
02:54 Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which is under the Ramstein format, which is technically outside
02:59 of the NATO umbrella and run by the United States. We didn't hear any objection about this from
03:06 Secretary Blinken, the U.S. Secretary of State yesterday. However, we have heard some skeptical
03:12 voices about the amount and length of this fund, for instance, from Hungary's foreign minister,
03:19 who is challenging whether this money is wise. Dave, thanks very much. Dave Keating,
03:24 our correspondent, joining us there live from Brussels. Thanks.
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