On Tuesday 9 July, the Allies celebrated NATO’s 75th anniversary in the same room where the organization’s founding treaty, the Washington Treaty, was signed in April 1949 by twelve states and created the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
An Alliance created to “preserve peace and safeguard freedom”, said its Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, describing NATO as “the most successful alliance in history”. It is “the single, greatest, most effective defensive alliance in the history of the world”, added US President Joe Biden.
“To understand NATO’s enduring success, it is important to recognise that our transatlantic Alliance was never self-evident. On the contrary, it is the result of deliberate choices and difficult decisions, starting with the creation of NATO”, explained Mr Stoltenberg, who warned that the Alliance should not be taken for granted, either now or in the decades to come.
The Secretary General called for “clarity, courage and determination”, saying that the Allies were at their “best” when they took difficult decisions with “courage, politics and moral clarity”.
“We are stronger and safer together, within NATO”, said Mr Stoltenberg. According to the US President, “NATO today is stronger, smarter and more energetic than when it began”. Joe Biden did not fail to underline the efforts made by the Allies in terms of their defence spending – a burden-sharing that the Americans hold dear. “This is remarkable progress – proof that our commitment is broad and deep, that we are ready, willing and able to deter aggression and defend every inch of NATO territory in all areas: land, air, sea, cyber and space”, he said.
An alliance that has grown since the end of the Cold War – it now has 32 members – reacted to 11 September, “weathered storms”, acknowledged Mr Stoltenberg, and was even described as a “brain-dead” organisation by the French President, Emmanuel Macron, in 2019, but which was able to react to the war in Ukraine. A conflict that Mr Biden and Mr Stoltenberg did not fail to mention.
For the latter, “our support for Ukraine cannot be taken for granted. It’s not easy, because our support involves costs and risks”. Mr Stoltenberg added that there was “no free option with an aggressive Russia as a neighbour, no risk-free option in the event of war, (but that) the highest cost and the greatest risk would be a Russian victory in Ukraine. We cannot allow this to happen”.
“Ukraine can and will stop Putin, especially with our full and collective support. And the Ukrainians have our full support”, warned Mr Biden. And to promise: “Russia will not win. Ukraine will win”.
New air-defence support
To help Ukraine, Mr Biden announced a “ historic donation of air defence equipment”. "The United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania and Italy will provide Ukraine with five additional strategic air defence systems”, he explained, adding that, in the coming months, the United States and its partners intend to supply dozens of additional tactical air defence systems. “The United States will make sure that when we export critical air defence interceptors, Ukraine goes to the front of the line. It will get this assistance before anyone else gets it”, promised the President. In total, Kyiv will receive hundreds of additional interceptors over the next year, according to Mr Biden. On Wednesday, Mr Stoltenberg announced that the Allies would ensure that the Ukrainians had more tactical air defence systems, in particular NASAMS, Norwegian surface-to-air missile batteries.
That same day, Mr Biden and the Dutch Prime Minister, Dick Schoof, and the Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen – co-leaders of the ‘Air Force Capability Coalition for Ukraine’, announced that the process of transferring Danish and Dutch F-16s was underway and that Ukraine would be flying operational F-16s “this summer”.
Mr Stoltenberg decorated
The celebrations also provided an opportunity to pay tribute to the work of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has been in post since 2014 and who will be stepping down at the beginning of October, after a mandate that had been extended several times by the leaders of the allied countries.
Mr Biden underlined his “extraordinary work”, explaining that “much of the progress made within the Alliance” was thanks to him. “He’s a man of integrity and rigour, a calm temperament in a moment of crisis, a consummate diplomat who works with leaders across the political spectrum and always finds a way to keep us moving forward”, the US President said, before presenting Mr Stoltenberg with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American civilian honour. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)