TRT World: NATO's Future: How will Trump influence the alliance?

Our Martin Michelot participated in a roundtable hosted by TRT World on the NATO Summit and Trump's influence on the Alliance.

Do you consider the Alliance being stronger, considering what Trump did and said at the summit?

I would not venture to say that thanks to the actions of Mr Trump the Alliance in stronger today. If anything, what was agreed upon in Brussels was pre-agreed upon by the Ministers of Defence and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs. So on the specific strand of deterrence towards Russia, on the strand of what the EU and NATO will cooperate on, and on the strand of what NATO wil do on couter-terrorism the Alliance is stronger. But Donald Trump rather undermined the trust of the allies by adding this factor of unpredictability; knowing that at any time he could have a different idea in mind that could lead him to eventually turn the tables. 

You can watch the whole interview on TRT World.

Martin Michelot
Senior Associate Research Fellow

Expertise: NATO and transatlantic security, European foreign policy and defense, French politics, elections and society, Visegrad Four and Central Europe, EU institutional issues