Is nato still relevant cracks appear as the Worlds Largest military alliance but its 70th birthday and the Member States settle that differences and what could happen if they dont this is inside story. And welcome to the program. The worlds biggest military alliance is facing a crisis the United States cant other than 10 european nations formed nato at the end of the 2nd world war to confront what they saw as riots from the soviet union now the biggest appear to be internal nato now boasts 29. 00 members and they are in london to mark the organizations birthday but recently the United States turkey and france have raised concerns about military spending and natures bow in general are diplomatic editor james bass explains for the next couple of days this is the man in the hot seat secretary general yens stoltenberg has the un enviable task of chairing a meeting of nato leaders at a time the alliance faces big challenges this gathering in london is supposed to mark nato 70th birthday its 1st headquarters were actually here in the british capital in an area that now houses embassies there are 3 main things those souring the mood 1st the trump factor. The u. S. Leader arriving here at londons stands today airport doesnt like summits and he has a particular dislike of nato summit repeatedly claiming other members arent paying their way then theres the growing tension between france and germany in an interview the french president Emmanuel Mccraw told the economist that nato was a brain dead this infuriated the german chancellor Angela Merkel and exposed a growing rift between the 2 countries last but not least the mounting doubts other nato members have about turkey not about the words of president but his actions buying the s 400 Missile System from russia and carrying out its recent incursion into Northern Syria i covered the last nato summit that was held in london here at lancaster house 29 years ago that was just months after the fall of the birdland wall and the end of the cold war and then there were questions about natos future but the alliance then expanded taking in the countries from the east before creating new roles for itself in the balkans and afghanistan. Almost 3 decades later natos internal differences this time are even more public being expressed by leaders themselves and therefore a potentially much more damaging jamesburg days out 0 london before the summit began turkeys president but turned to block defense plans for baltic countries and poland has nato to support his military intervention in syria against the mainly Kurdish Group of fighters that turkey considers terrorists. Did in the uk then and nato needs to act in a proactive manner against threats posed by terrorist organizations its inevitable that need to the need of readjusting its against terrorist threats they expect the alliance to display strong cooperation with the thing in a thread said if you have to think. The u. S. President and nato secretary general pushed back against the french president s view the alliance is brain dead and its roots are going to a lot of different chords in britain man who. Has a great purpose especially with the nato is becoming much pleasurable in terms of what it. Is Richard Branson like you would have you think immediately you know the british were you there well i can still pick you because there are people apple. Is about to do. For. The fans. Who are. Thats introduce our guests in turkeys capital ankara martin director of policy studies a setter a political think tank on skype from tallinn estonia Mark Mickelson deputy chair of Foreign Affairs committee in this tourney and parliament and head of his countrys delegation to the Nato Parliamentary Assembly and in brussels christine there is in a senior fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States she is also a policy analyst on nato transatlantic Security Corp warm welcome to you all martin were talking here about the future of nato and you saw that statement from president. Saying basically that his countrys banning to stop plans for defense for the baltics and poland if nato does not provide military assistance to turkey in its push against the s. D. F. In northeastern syria is this just a continuation of the strained relations between nato and turkey. You know when we look at the last several years we see that there are significant conflicts between some of the nato members and turkey is you know regarding the institution the 1st prices are up to it when certain nato members decided to dismantle petry what myside Defense System from turkey and transfer it to the Eastern Europe this was a kind of shock for turkey unit at a time when there was a huge political instability in iraq and in syria the 2nd one and more importantly. Some of the nato members unfortunately have been supporting the Syrian Branch of p. K. K. Which is recognized as a terrorist organization by most of European Countries and the United States but they continue they insistently deny that there is a direct official link between y p g and p k k so they continue to support why p. G. In the Northern Syria and turkey has been calling me to members to fulfill their responsibility against an ally which is turkey in this case so thats why turkey calls nato members to make nato more functional not to declare it as a brain dead organization. Markel i mean is this a temporary crisis or a deep one i mean between turkey and nato something that calls for the nato somehow we define the whole Trans Atlantic Organization you know nato is has been during the last 70 years but we celebrated a nato. Summit and a grocery has been on a crossroads several times and. I wouldnt even call it as a crisis actually perhaps we see a day and many more challenges will be gone leannes alliance to tackle and we talked about situation in the middle east and syria as calling in turkey you mentioned also what is going on in Northern Africa or of. Special frett posed to some of the Member States from east face of russia and then last but not least of which are also the growth of china has made some of our allies bit nervous so i see that this is perhaps 1st time and we have to tackle these all multiple and very complex challenge and of course it doesnt help if we use our internal very important meca knees like defense plans in order to achieve a National Interest christine turkey is a 2nd Largest Military in nato however its expanding its a corporation with russia other wisdom for which nato was established 70 years ago number 2 it has launched a missile operation in northeastern syria without consulting with nato a case where the nato is saying isnt this an indication that there is something bigger here that there is a genuine crisis about nato itself. I think theres a way when you look at this this is not necessarily a crisis about nato itself but as margo is saying that there is more need for nato to do things and for the nato allies to take on security challenges globally you have the relationship between the major allies to be in a different place than it was before since the beginning of the president and president terms of ministration weve seen from President Trump a much stronger and more contentious tone with relation to the allies what we see today is president mokoena president no one imitating that tone and some of the american tactics back to the other allies so we have a change in style a with the nato and a change in some of the relationships between the allies and their non nato nato partners what a lot of the nato allies are are concerned about is turkey is relationship with russia with the purchase of the us 400. 00 missiles which calls into question how the Turkish Military systems can be used together with the rest of nato as military systems at this at the moment in which we are still in the context of nato trying to defend against an increasingly aggressive russia we have not solved the russian question and the way that turkey at the moment is not only establishing a military relationship with russia but also pitting its interest in counterterrorism against the defense needs in the baltic sea region i think is an unhelpful approach to security nato has tried to take on all of the challenges together whether they are in the east or whether they are in the south and the change from what im seeing is rather than saying about we cannot maybe have a 360 approach as nato calls it but pitting the interests east. Its against the interests that i mean says he is going to activate this 400. 00. System as an independent. System but still nato says this is going to be counterproductive and he might undermine its defense capabilities isnt this something that could further just undermine the chances to bring the both together. You know we have to we have to differentiate 2 things the 1st is didnt they need to as a as institution and the secretary general of nato never questioned the buying of s. 400 from turkey and he made several explanations mr stoltenberg declaring that turkey has the right to buy f. 400 by the way more important factor here is. Turkeys reproach my with russia or buying a 400 from the Russian Federation is not the cause but the result of other ization of some of the nato members. Thought this is the main source of the problem after they have dismantled patriot missiles from turkey turkey asked and attempted to buy this from the United States but the United States government rejected to sell patio to turkey and at the end it was an obligation for turkey and the 30 for them to provide this in order to defend itself against the middle eastern so unfortunately turkey has no problem with the nato institution but it has some conflicts and in terms of their perception and policies with some with certain age remembers less vote lets not consider as 400 as a cause ok but as a result i see your point station of turkey i see your point marco nato is no expense is celebrating its 70th anniversary 70 years since the establishment of this organization with the aim of containing the growing then threats from the soviet union do you think that. Nato has become up. Salie and a corn is stick with the new realities and that therefore there needs to be reinventing of the organization itself now nato is not absolute nato is not in great brain that nato is a lawyer and better perhaps than any other part of nato here in estonia we and our people recognize the need for a Strong Alliance of democratic countries in europe and in an open america and actually i guess as i said earlier we dont have a certain a dazed or took people who are prawns for the United States for our european allies about and Work Together to tackle the. Mounting challenge we have on our horror and i dont see it but that this is going to be very productive and we tried to find the Solutions Group that headlines actually nato has had many many times during the last 7 years a situation there are as i said we were in rows and rows but we all following the. Unity nvidias what we hope to see tomorrow from london but still i mean cristin if you look at the latest developments on the ground the americans for example are cutting back their finances contributions their space likely saying that every country should be able to defend itself in the near future isnt the Trump Administration determined to turn its back on nato and look for different options in the near future i completely disagree with that if we even look at what you mentioned before which is the which is that change in budget contributions how much the u. S. Will spend for nato operations so simply make it meaning that keeping the gear is going to be the lights on here at headquarters. In that case the u. S. Contributions going down from 22 percent to 16 but that change in funding afford nato is that money is going to still stay in europe and contribute to u. S. Military actions and protection in europe so that isnt changing the us defense dance in europe its simply in every allocation of resources and that so i dont think we should be concerned about that and if you look at the press conference that President Trump had with stoltenberg you see that President Trump is very critical of the tone for his insults to nato causing these comments disrespectful and nasty President Trump at the moment is showing himself and portraying himself as a commander in chief through his visit to afghanistan last week through his actions around the nato summit and he is adopting a much more normal tone he has extracted higher defense spending from many of the allies and was tweeting about this as his personal achievement he was saying that in the past he was very angry with nato but that is not where he seems to be today and so i think what we see instead is an evolution of President Trump stance on nato i think he is able to see the particular changes that he wanted to see and now is in fact offended when other allies like president mccone are insulting the institution so were in a very different situation for this particular summit than we have been in the past one or 2 however many people agree with michael when hes made to bring. Mcallen was critical of the u. S. Stance when it comes to nato that he was critical of. Of turkeys military operation you northam is to syria now is basically trying to say that if it goes vis way the old knows this is going to be quibbled in the near future. You. It is interesting. To discuss the future of need to. Regarding turkey i think its better to discuss the future of nato regarding press perception of nato we all know that france. Left the military wing of the institution in the 1960 s. When it comes to turkey turkey none none of the officials of turkey they have questioned the turkeys membership in in the nato so there is no such problem no such discussion point for the turks but when we look at the European Countries we see that several years ago they have initiated a new defense and Security Policy which is called pascoe so probably france and some other European Countries they want. The United States to intel fear to involve less in the security structure of europe but this is not how we see it we we as turkey we still see nato as a strong deterrent military institution and alliance which got anti the security of the european continent and we are claiming that the security of europe starts with turkey so turkey has to be part of this decision in terms of struggling against any kind of challenges and threats directed to europe and nato marco your said earlier that nato should stay that its not obsolete but when you have. The president of the u. S. Asking nato to further embrace russia when nato was established as a deterrent against russian growing influence in places like ukraine isnt this a conflict inkstands when it comes to how to move forward as data is concerned. No we leave it at the time and. Political leaders in democratic societies also are sometimes too dependent on social media about at the same time what we see what is happening on the wrong what was happening in on the eastern flank of nato and then the u. S. Commitment has grown significantly during the time of sudden inspiration. As to pacific rim and we talking about of the investments into European Deterrence Initiative but also the presence of u. S. Forces in that in europe and then forget for next year for instance there is planned major exercise defender 2. 20 which should brings into europe many more troops of the u. S. Or for these particular exercise ronnies what is written on the level of rhetorical and i agree that at least but the stakes problem. Isnt trump the we see that he doesnt speak any more that nato obsolete but what he needs of course hala to manage the threats posed by russians specific and we see that aggression against ukraine is going on hopefully in december 9th normandy summit in paris will give us some ideas khalid we can move ahead but so far here in the stone you know we havent seen any changes in Strategic Thinking of russian. Started crissy in russia russian president putin has expressed concerns about the expansion of nato saying why should it continue to expand when we when we are not posing any threat to the regional and geo political stability is russia a factor that is going to further unified nato Member States or is it a is it likely to further just. Divides nato members i think russia is a factor thats going to still be on the agenda for all Member States and i think that they are there are tactical changes in the position of particular allies that could mean that said moments there are divergent or convergent use but fundamentally russia has not changed its behavior in ukraine it has not changed its posture when it comes to interference activities in western democracies until it does so the question of russia is not going to go anywhere and that really is a question for president putin to consider himself what are his behaviors his his actions from his country and it is up to nato i think to be evolving in protecting itself in response to the change in tactics and the ongoing pressure from russia on the allies in those who dont question the nato should stay. The other keys saying that it has become without purpose for the turkish perspective how they would like to see made to in the near future. Well turkey doesnt see need to as the a military alliance only we know that nato has a political economy dimension that is it is a military alliance of liberal democracies. So the it is it is diplomatic and political dimension is also very significant for turkey so being part of nato. In this sense is quite critical for turkey in debt its to be a member of the western family we know that besides the council of europe so and nato is this the other pillar of the western identity and turkey as as as i have said earlier never questions its western identity so turkey still wants to integrate it is a military structure its security structure with the european continental trance at pennsic states thank you thank you very much indeed unfortunately we are running out of time but was definitely rivers of this particular issue in the near future as the debate continues about the bowl the identity of nato in a change and a changing world will have to man buckle mickelson to see him thank you very much indeed for your contribution to the program and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website aljazeera dot com for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com for was last a. J. 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Well again piece it ill be here in doha the top stories from aljazeera nato leaders have gathered at a hotel just outside london for a summit meeting hoping to find unity over their future the alliance is riddled with disagreements between some of its most prominent member countries the u. S. And the french president in particular have disagreed on several points including the very role of nato itself a british Prime MinisterBoris Johnson used his opening speech to push a message of unity we are rock solid in our commitment to nato and to the giant shield of solidarity