NATO Summit - in tweets

Eric Leviz from NYMag:

“Germany is a captive of Russia,” the U.S. president declared in a breakfast meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, his first diplomatic encounter in the Belgian capital. “They’re getting so much of their oil and gas from Russia … It certainly doesn’t seem to make sense that they paid billions of dollars to Russia and now we have to defend them against Russia.”

Stoltenberg tried to push back on this assessment, saying, “the strength of NATO is that despite these differences, we have always been able to unite around our core task to protect and defend each other,” and “when we stand together, also in dealing with Russia, we are stronger.” 

“No, you’re just making Russia richer,” Trump retorted. “You’re not dealing with Russia, you’re just making Russia richer.” 

White House chief of staff John Kelly appeared less than comfortable during this tirade.

What's so bad about pastries and cheese anyways?


I guess an explainer is warranted (from David Frum):

Nordstream Pipeline

"President Trump has dangerously misunderstood (or refused to understand) the security concern for the Nordstream gas pipelines directly connecting Germany to Russia via the Baltic Sea.  The issue is not that the pipelines render Germany dependent on Russian gas, as Trump stated. Russia is even more dependent on German money than the other way around.    

No, the problem with the pipelines is that they enable Russia to turn off gas to Baltic Republics, Poland, etc. WITHOUT pressuring Germany - thereby severing Alliance solidarity in a crisis. The US was concerned about the pipelines in order to uphold NATO solidarity vs Russian energy pressure. Since Trump has made clear he despises NATO, his remonstrances on pipeline can and will be shrugged off.   

What he's performing this AM at NATO breakfast is a repeat of his 2016 "No puppet, you're the puppet" routine, accusing others of what is suspected of him: dependency on Russia, Putin. Does not fool anybody at the NATO table of course, but they're not the intended audience."

 The aftermath: