Dissent, strong words, obvious disagreements but, ultimately, the feeling that the worst has been avoided: the meeting in Watford, near London, the heads of state and government of NATO member countries, Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4, December was, in the absence of enthusiasm and unanimity, the approval of a text of conclusions about satisfactory for all, Wednesday.
It is, as expected, the attitude of Donald Trump that guided the two days of meetings. The US President has again multiplied the comments on the countries which, in his eyes, do not make a sufficient effort in defense, dealing with "Big offenders" those whose expenditures are less than 1% of their GDP. However, it also targeted Germany – 1.42% in 2020 – indicating that "If they do not want (spend more), I should do something about trade ".
Once he made this statement, which had become rather banal, the president, entered by a backdoor in the morning, no longer spoke publicly. Visibly tired, he canceled the closing press conference he was scheduled to hold on Wednesday afternoon. He preferred to reserve his arrows to the Canadian leader Justin Trudeau"Hypocrite" for making fun of it, during a conversation with Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. A partly inaudible sound picked up during the reception of the leaders at Buckingham Palace suggested that they were not saying that the good of the American president.
Macron has "retracted a lot", according to Trump
Mr. Macron had seen his comments on the " brain death " of the Atlantic Alliance qualified as "Very insulting" by Mr. Trump. He then learned from the president's mouth that he had "A lot retracted" during a tête-à-tête, followed by a limousine trip, which both men had on Tuesday night. Mr. Macron was able to reaffirm on Wednesday that he "Totally assumed" his diagnosis, which would have allowed to raise a debate that was indispensable ". "Our debates should be on topics other than budget and finance"he added.
In terms of strong exchanges, the two days were also marked by the obvious disagreement between the French president and his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. At issue, the insistence of the Turkish president that Kurdish fighters, spearhead of the international coalition against the Islamic State in Syria, are considered 'Terrorists' by the members of the Alliance. It is impossible for Mr Macron to qualify the forces of the People's Protection Units (YPG).
