President Trump had a very busy first day in London for the NATO summit where he held three bilateral meetings on Tuesday ahead of the 70th-year anniversary of the alliance.
In addition to the two bilats with the French and Canadian leaders, Trump also met with the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg where they discussed burden-sharing, peace, security, tackling terrorism and other relevant issues pertinent to the alliance.
The expanded meeting between Presidents Trump and Macron was tense and had been anticipated to be of that nature particularly after the French President disparaged the 70-year old alliance by calling it “brain dead”. In response, Trump called him “nasty” and mocked him for presiding over a failed economy and troubled nation.
Trump also had a bilateral meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau where he called out his northern neighbour for failing to meet the 2% threshold on burden-sharing requirement by NATO member states of which it part of. He used that same bilat opportunity to push Nancy Pelosi and Democrats to pass the long-overdue USMCA – the new trade deal with Mexico and Canada.
To sum it up, President Trump had a very busy first day that saw him dominate the agenda as he pushed for more member states to increase their fare-share contributions to 2% threshold of their GDP payments to NATO.
He capped the day with three events. The Trumps had tea with Prince Charles and Camilla at Clarence House, a reception with The Queen at Buckingham Palace and later at 10 Downing Street.
President Trump was in London to join other leaders to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NATO alliance, which was founded in 1949 post-WWII era in Washington, DC.
© Copyright 2019 Manyika Review. All Rights Reserved.
