00:00This latest attack in Ukraine comes on the eve of that very NATO summit taking place in Ankara next week.
00:06The US President Donald Trump has confirmed he will be attending, despite ongoing divisions within the alliance, particularly over the
00:13US war on Iran.
00:14For the latest, we can now head to the NATO headquarters here in Brussels, where our correspondent Shona Murray is
00:20standing by for us.
00:21Shona, you'll be heading, of course, to Ankara next week. Ahead of that, just tell us what is on the
00:26agenda.
00:28Well, good morning, Maeve. And I spoke to one NATO diplomat last night and I asked him about next week.
00:33And he said it's showtime. It's time for NATO to prove to the United States that those countries are well
00:39on their way to spending 5% of GDP on defence by 2035, as agreed at the last NATO summit.
00:45We know this is a major bone of contention for the United States.
00:48We heard from the US ambassador to NATO during the week, Matthew Whittaker, who used the term free riders when
00:55it comes to some European countries and American military assets.
00:58Also on the agenda for sure will be America's long term commitment to the NATO alliance to European security architecture.
01:06We know that the United States has pulled a lot of capabilities available to NATO, like B-52 bombers, F
01:12-16s, XF-35s.
01:13And in addition, there will be a real push for the defence industry to basically ramp up production and spend
01:19more and build more weapons.
01:21And of course, Shona, President Trump has been expressing his anger now for months with allies for not helping the
01:27US over Iran.
01:28I imagine this topic will also dominate in Ankara.
01:33No doubt about it, Maeve.
01:34We even heard from Donald Trump last night on Truth Social saying that European countries abandoned the United States when
01:41it came to the war in Iran.
01:42He's talking about the fact that some countries like Italy, like Spain, refused access to the US military to their
01:48bases in those countries for the war in Iran.
01:51The UK did so initially, but then it allowed the US there.
01:55Other countries like Germany have always allowed the United States basing rights.
01:59So the picture isn't as clear cut as he said, but he's certainly angry about this.
02:03And I caught up with his former US ambassador to NATO, Kurt Volker, and I asked him about this situation
02:09and Trump's anger.
02:12Donald Trump is always raging about something and he's unhappy about European contributions, European defence spending, Iran, whatever it might
02:21be.
02:22But this is not going to be a blow up of a NATO summit.
02:26It's actually going to be quite calm.
02:28First, I think he has a good relationship with Erdogan and he doesn't want to rain on Erdogan's parade.
02:34Second, he is happy about NATO allies spending more on defence.
02:39And I think allies will say something nice about wanting to support security in the Persian Gulf when there's an
02:45opportunity to do so, trying to position themselves as helpful.
02:50And I think they're also going to try to take some positive steps on Ukraine, reaffirming this Pearl mechanism, the
02:58way in which Europe buys armaments from the United States and provides them to Ukraine.
03:04And what of that business of NATO being important for the United States to project its own power globally?
03:10Has that diminished somewhat or is it still important?
03:13Well, so the administration right now likes to say that Europe wasn't there for us.
03:18They weren't helping.
03:19They didn't let us use bases and airspace and things like that.
03:23That's a bit of an exaggeration.
03:26You had to ask and then you could have used them.
03:29And we didn't tell anybody we were going to attack Iran.
03:32And then we complained that no one was attacking with us.
03:34So I think it's a bit much the way that is packaged.
03:38Now, that being said, it has become politically beneficial to some countries in Europe to say they're standing up to
03:46Trump and that they aren't allowing their bases or space to be used to attack Iran.
03:51But that is now that's that's a dynamic that was created by the U.S. surprise attack without consulting with
04:00anybody.
04:00From an industry point of view, because that's really going to be a focus for the first day of the
04:04summit, this industry forum.
04:06What is required of NATO, of NATO countries in terms of the industry stepping up, given the fact that the
04:14United States burned through so many munitions, including Patriot systems and so on?
04:20Well, this is a great question because it starts with the money.
04:24You've got to be spending enough money on defense to have the capability that you need.
04:29But then, as Secretary Ruta has said in his Oval Office meeting, the trick is converting money into capability.
04:36You can spend money on a lot of things and it doesn't necessarily produce defense capability.
04:40So getting a real defense capability that you need is not so straightforward.
04:45And then finally, we have to learn some lessons from Ukraine.
04:48Ukraine has developed high tech, low cost systems that are very effective and can overwhelm high tech, high cost systems.
05:00For example, if you spend a Patriot missile costs a million dollars to shoot down a drone that costs $30
05:08,000.
05:09That's an unsustainable position to be in.
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