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And
that's NATO's communique in 10 seconds.
--Pepe
Escobar
Trump CRUSHES Nato Secretary General with massive truth bomb rant (Video)
Watch
Trump dismantle NATO’s Secretary General, who turns to some good
old fashion butt kissing to win Trump over.
11
July, 2018
US
President Donald Trump gave NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg a
tongue lashing on NATO’s failure to crank up its defense spending,
while calling out Germany for its complete dependance on Russian oil
and gas.
Check
out the video below for the best parts of Trump’s epic take down of
Stoltenberg (and Merkel)…
Of
course Trump is preparing the way for his meeting with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, setting up some negotiating points for
public consumption, before the two leaders face off in Helsinki on
July 16th.
Trump
however is also signaling his disdain for the Brussels technocrats
running NATO, a military alliance with no purpose or point for
existence. Trump is obviously displaying his lack of patience with
NATO’s decades of freeloading, while also calling out Germany’s
two-faced hypocrisy…feeding off the US taxpayer to protect them
against an ‘invading Russia’, while at the same time outsourcing
its entire energy infrastructure to Russia.
POTUS
Trump called Germany a hostage of Russia, criticizing the bloc
members that approved the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas
pipeline from Russia to Europe.
Trump
blasted Stoltenberg during a working breakfast…
“Germany
is captive of Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from
Russia. They pay billions of dollars to Russia and we have to defend
them against Russia.”
This
is a defense and energy shake down from Trump towards NATO, while at
the same time laying the groundwork for a meeting with Putin, which
will possibly see European energy and NATO discussed as perhaps some
kind of grand bargain between the two leaders…because today, during
his NATO breakfast, Trump just exposed how weak, inept, and corrupt
NATO has become.
Via RT…
Chancellor
Angela Merkel rejected Trump’s assertion, saying that Berlin makes
its own independent decisions and policies.
Germany
has resisted US pressure to block Nord Stream 2, which is due to be
completed in 2019. The project is an expansion of the existing Nord
Stream natural gas pipeline which opened in 2011. The pipeline has
been a source of contention for over a year, pitting the US and a
small number of Eastern European countries, including Poland,
Ukraine, Lithuania and others, on one side, against Russia and major
EU members, led by Germany, on the other.
The
expanded pipeline aims to ensure a reliable supply of Russian gas to
central and western Europe. It includes a 759 mile (1,222km) natural
gas pipeline running on the bed of the Baltic Sea from Russian gas
fields to Germany. It will double the existing Nord Stream pipeline’s
current annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters and is expected to
become operational by the end of next year.
The
EU has suffered considerable economic losses due to the US-led push
to block trade with Russia since 2014. By contrast, the US has been
largely unaffected, and has even profited somewhat from the sale of
pricey liquefied natural gas (LNG) that Washington has promoted as
the alternative to cheaper Russian fuel.
Last
month, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said that while US
politicians are accusing Europe of being dependent on Russian gas,
Washington was force-feeding Europe its liquefied natural gas, which
is three times more expensive than natural gas from Russia.
With
less than a week to go before President Trump is scheduled to meet
with President Putin in Helsinki, the State Department has decided to
renew its pressure campaign on Western businesses invested in
Russia's Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany.
According
to Reuters, the State Department has doubled down on previous
warnings to Europe, most recently in May when Trump gave Merkel an
ultimatum to drop the Russian gas pipeline, and has been "making
it clear" to firms involved with "the Russian energy export
pipeline sector" that they're at risk of being sanctioned.
"We
have been clear that firms working in the Russian energy export
pipeline sector are engaging in a line of business that carries
sanctions risk," a spokesman for the U.S. State Department told
Reuters.
"We
believe it (the pipeline) would undermine Europe’s overall energy
security and stability by providing Russia another tool for the
political coercion of European countries, especially Ukraine. Russia
understands that this project is dividing Europe, and is using that
to its advantage."
The
warning comes after President Trump accused Germany of being a
"captive of Russia" because of its dependence on the
pipeline for LNG, unleashing a diplomatic scandal ahead of his
official NATO visit.....
With
the passing of the Soviet Union, NATO is an alliance without a
purpose, and the US president is not afraid to say so
Donald
Trump continued his round of criticism for the aging North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) as he prepared for an upcoming trip to
Europe that will culminate in a July 16th summit with Russian
President Vladimir Putin
Peter
Lavelle comments (via Facebook)
Germany’s
energy security for dummies: Europe wants reasonably priced natural
gas from Russia. Russia want to sell Europe reasonably priced natural
gas (and the Germans being Germans want to be first among Europeans
to transact this).
Ukraine was once (before and after the neo-Nazis
took over in Kiev) the transit country conduit for such natural gas.
American and European neocons backed illegal regime change in Kiev in
2014, flipping Ukraine against Russia.
Neocon ideology and American
Exceptionalism won, but the politics of energy did not change.
Ukraine officially and stupidly refuses to be a reliable energy
transit country from Russia to Europe. American energy exports (LNG)
to Europe are expensive, but also a wet dream for American energy
companies.
Russia does not trust Ukraine to be a transit country (and
Germany doesn’t either, but shamelessly won’t say so). Nord
Stream 1 and 2 pipelines are smart and beneficial to Germany (Europe)
and Russia.
But this is the point, it is not beneficial to the U.S.
So Trump gets a cheap debating point.
Germany (Europe) can’t say
Russia is a security threat without admitting its strong (and
beneficial) energy relationship with Russia. So the EU and NATO have
to admit what is obvious – it calls Russia a threat because
Washington simply says so (because it is about energy politics and
not security policy). EU: stand up! NATO: disappear!
Problem solved.
From
the liberal Independent:
Angela
Merkel responds that: 'I've experienced myself a part of Germany
controlled by the Soviet Union and I'm very happy today that we are
united in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany'
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