Washington’s indifference to NATO has resulted in the “brain death” of the alliance, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday, adding that there currently is “no coordination whatsoever of strategic decision-making between the United States and its NATO allies.” An example of this is US President Trump’s recent decision to pull US troops out of northeastern Syria, a move that was against the interests of European NATO members. Macron argued that because the US “shows signs of turning its back on” NATO’s European members, the latter can no longer trust that the US will come to their aid in case of an attack by a hostile power.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday responded to Macron’s comments by saying that “NATO remains a critical, perhaps historically one of the most critical strategic partnerships in all recorded history.” However, on Friday Pompeo warned that NATO “needs to grow and change,” adding that if member states “don’t live up to their commitments, there is a risk that NATO could become ineffective or obsolete.”
Read more: Macron says Europe is facing the ‘brain death of NATO’