NATO Leaders Summit Advances European Military Buildup Imperialist "Terrorism and Burden Sharing" Agenda Increases Danger of War

From May 24 to 25, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau participated in the NATO Leaders' Summit held in Brussels, Belgium where the organization is based. The meeting, which coincided with the opening of a new NATO headquarters that has been under construction since December 2010, revealed sharpening contradictions between European so-called Atlanticists, with whom Canada sided, and the agenda of the U.S. Trump Administration to force NATO members to finance its own war preparations.[1] Despite the contradictions among NATO members, all colluded with the aim set by the U.S. for the May 2017 NATO Leaders' Summit to advance European military build-up. Speaking in Brussels on May 25, U.S. President Donald Trump described this mission as follows: "The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration, as well as threats from Russia and on NATO's eastern and southern borders." In this vein, the U.S. was successful in setting the agenda for the meeting as "terrorism and burden sharing." This meant securing official NATO participation in the U.S. mission in Iraq and Syria and other so-called anti-terror initiatives as well as stepped up war preparations and military spending from NATO members to meet the U.S. target of two per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Canada responded to this U.S. demand with the announcement of a new defence policy on June 7 that will see military spending increase by 70 per cent over the next 10 years, reaching 1.4 per cent of GDP. Canada currently spends around one per cent of GDP on its armed forces, excluding the tens of billions currently designated for procurement of new armaments and vehicles. All NATO members have been in formal agreement to spend two per cent of GDP on their military forces since 2014, and reiterated that commitment several times since. In that regard, the meeting agreed to "develop annual national plans, setting out how Allies intend to meet the defence investment pledge we made together in 2014. The national plans will cover three major areas: cash, capabilities, and contributions," the NATO Secretary General said. He added that by 2015, all NATO members had ceased cuts to military spending, and in 2016, "total[military]spending across Europe and Canada increased by billions of dollars." The annual national plans intend to "keep up the momentum," he said. The annual plans of NATO members are to be completed by December and are expected to explain: 1. How countries will meet the two per cent of GDP commitment, 20 per cent of which is to be spent on "major equipment"; 2. How to invest funding in key military capabilities; and 3. How countries intend to contribute to NATO missions, operations and other engagements. The NATO meeting also officially announced Montenegro, a former Yugoslav republic as the 29th member of the military bloc, whose status was finalized on June 5. Note 1. "Atlanticism" is defined by Collins English Dictionary as "Advocation of or support for cooperation among western European and North American nations regarding political, economic, and defense issues." (TML Weekly No. 21, June 10, 2017)