Nato fetes 70 years, but Trump not partying

WASHINGTON: Seventy years after it was formed to counter the Soviet Union, Russia has returned to the top of the agenda for Northern Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). But the alliance faces another, more unlikely problem -- criticism from the US president.

The 29-nation North Atlantic Treaty Organization is celebrating its 70th anniversary with talks among foreign ministers Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, where, in a Cold War redux, the resurgent power of Russia will be the chief item.US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the ministers will work "to make sure that Nato is around for the next 70 years"and take aim at Russia over its 2014 takeover of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine.Pompeo told a congressional hearing he was hopeful "we will be able to announce another series of actions that we will jointly take together to push back against what Russia is doing there in Crimea."

But if countering Russia is a familiar role for Nato, its new internal dynamics are not, with President Donald Trump repeatedly suggesting that the allies are freeloaders.

The businessman-turned-president, who berated allies at a NATO summit last year at the group´s Brussels headquarters, is pressing member states to meet the alliance's goal set in 2014 of spending two percent of GDP on defense. Trump has even derisively asked whether it is worth defending small Nato states such as Montenegro.

Pompeo said he will discuss spending and again pointed to Germany, which plans for defense spending well below two percent and declining by 2023. "When I talk to my counterparts, they will begin by saying, 'America needs to do X and Y because Russia poses a threat,´" Pompeo told a forum of the conservative National Review magazine.

"Then you ask them 'Well, that's awesome. Tell me what you're prepared to do.´ And they say, ´It´s tough. Our voters just really don´t like to spend money on defense," Pompeo said to laughter.

Nato leaders will hold an annual summit in December in London, but the 70th anniversary celebrations are notably low-key. It marks a stark contrast with the 50th anniversary in 1999, which rattled Russia and sealed off Washington streets in a way that locals still talk about.