Nato at yet another crossroads

Nato has had a pretty disastrous period in recent years and now, with its next summit due this coming week, there will no doubt be a call for resurgence and more spending and closer ties and a united front against Russia. But will it mean anything? Alliance members are still struggling to find the money for all the new equipment and expertise required to fight the next war, or, hopefully, deter the next war, and it could be years before the whole organisation is, as it were, fighting fit for the future. Donald Trump has been scathing about Nato for so long, one wonders whether he will ever become a fan again. He will be at the Nato summit and will no doubt barge his way through the various leaders and chat up the only people he still seems to like, such as President Erdogan of Turkey and, for some odd reason, President Macron of France. I say odd, because the two are as unalike as you could imagine but Trump likes Macron. I think he's also fascinated by his much older wife. I doubt he will bother with poor Keir Starmer who is on his way out and whatever he says at the summit won't count, especially after the very modest amount of extra money he has agreed to spend on defence, as outlined by the Defence Investment Plan. Andy Burnham will be prime minister a week or so after Starmer returns from the summit, so no one will be interested in what Starmer says, apart from goodbye. Cruel, but true. Whether Nato will survive will depend on whether Trump has had a rethink and feels the alliance isn't such a bad thing after all. That just may happen, especially if everyone flatters him like he's some sort of Hollywood icon or whatever.