NATO'S UNITY RESTS ON ART OF APPEASING TRUMP

At The Hague, leaders walk a tightrope as US President's transactional diplomacy collides with alliance's strategic future

- BY GINA BOU SERHAL | Special to Gulf News

This year's Nato Summit in The Hague, held from June 24 and 25, was anything but routine. While the ongoing war in Ukraine remains the focus of Nato's agenda, the atmosphere was markedly different from previous gatherings. For the first time since returning to office, US President Donald Trump attended the summit under his second administration.

Ahead of his arrival in the Netherlands, Trump spoke with reporters on the White House lawn in what should have been a moment of triumph, an opportunity to tout his recently brokered ceasefire between Iran and Israel. But the moment quickly soured. Pressed by journalists, a visibly frustrated Trump confirmed that the ceasefire had already collapsed. Using unusually explicit language on camera, he vented his anger at both sides for breaking the deal. His deflated posture was unmistakable, the posture of a president who, even before boarding Air Force One, was already stripped of the diplomatic victory he had planned to brandish in The Hague as evidence that he alone could untangle both the Middle East and Ukraine.

Flattery as a strategy