Unlike many others, NATO summit host Lithuania is an ideal US ally
Tom Rogan
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To his credit, President Joe Biden spent 25 minutes greeting Lithuanian citizens on arriving in the Eastern European nation on Monday.
Lithuania’s capital, Vilnius, will host this year’s NATO leaders summit on Tuesday and Wednesday. And while Ukraine’s desire to enter the alliance will be top of the agenda, NATO’s existing credibility is also of critical concern.
Unlike last year’s leaders summit host, Spain, Lithuania is well deserving of the hosting honor.
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The latest defense spending estimate released by NATO last week tells one part of the tale. NATO members agreed to move toward a minimum target of 2%-of-GDP defense spending back in 2014. But the latest NATO assessment shows just how unserious many allies were in making that pledge. The new estimate anticipates that Spain will spend 1.26% of its GDP on defense in 2023 (only beating out Luxembourg and Belgium, the latter of which absurdly still hosts NATO headquarters). In contrast, Lithuania is projected to spend 2.54% of its GDP on defense in 2023. The chart below shows the stark discrepancy (I’ve highlighted Lithuania and Spain in red).
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Spain kowtows to communist China, showing Madrid’s ultimate disinterest in NATO’s central moral premise: the defense of democratic sovereignty from the preeminent threats to that interest. Spain also regularly fails to deploy its military forces in a forward posture. Unlike many other European Union member states, however, Lithuania faces down neighboring Russia with moral and strategic courage. Vilnius also endures a vicious China trade embargo over its brave support for democratic Taiwan (Germany has prevented greater responsive EU support for Lithuania). Indeed, so enraged is Beijing by Lithuania’s courage that it has issued propaganda threats to destroy the European nation.
In essence, Lithuania represents everything that is right with NATO, and Spain represents everything that is wrong with NATO.
To be sure, the alliance’s 31 leaders will put on a show of solidarity in Vilnius. But it’s clear that NATO remains divided between those with true resolve to fight tonight for the alliance and those who lack it. Take Germany and France, the NATO members that also happen to have the two largest economies in the European Union.
When he’s not acting like a European viceroy of China, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still trying to figure out how to enact promised defense spending boosts (Germany is projected to spend 1.57% of its GDP on defense in 2023). While France’s Emmanuel Macron obsesses over his vision of European “strategic autonomy” (translate: “bow to Xi“), he only sent one aircraft to a recent NATO exercise simulating a Russian invasion of Western Europe (the U.S. sent 100 military aircraft). While France recently passed increases to defense spending, as with Germany, it is long overdue (France is projected to spend 1.9% of its GDP on defense in 2023).
It would be unfair to single out Belgium, France, and Germany. Hungarian strongman/Putin-Xi puppet Viktor Orban is a little more than a fifth column against the United States. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan is similarly happy to weaken the alliance for his own partisan interests. And Canada’s Justin Trudeau has made clear his interest in NATO extends only so far as Canada doesn’t have to invest in it.
Fortunately, Lithuania offers a different conception of alliance. NATO and the U.S. are better for it. Should the day ever come when Lithuania is attacked, the U.S. should be unflinching in its direct military support.