against Munich Security Summit Demostration info

 

Resist NATO condemns the Munich Security Summit and Trump’s Fake Peace Plan!

 

The Resist NATO campaign condemns the recent NATO Security conference in Munich as a war preparations summit. The major disagreements now surfacing between NATO members and the US exposes NATO as an alliance in shambles and a Western imperialist system in decline.

On February 12th, US President Trump made the shocking announcement that he had spoken with Russian President Putin about ending the war in Ukraine. Shortly after, US Defense Secretary Hegseth proclaimed that Ukraine would not be given membership in NATO and hinted that the US was open to discussing Ukrainian land acquisitions with Russia. The US and Russia will hold talks in Saudi Arabia soon, while Ukraine will not be invited.

Coming just days before the scheduled NATO Defense Summit in Munich, this significant update overshadowed the entire meeting. The other major point of concern was Hegseth’s demand that European members pay more for their defense spending, just as Trump did during his previous Presidential term. And hanging even heavier is the news of Trump’s plan to impose 25% tariffs on EU steel and aluminum imports which would drastically hurt industrial production in Europe and the US and heighten inflation across the world.

Two important questions arising for the peace movement now are, why is the US making this stark turn of policy towards Ukraine, and what does this mean for Europe?

Trump’s surprising move flies in the face of former President Biden’s practice of praising the NATO alliance unquestioningly while embracing the US’s role as arbiter of the so-called “rules-based order” of liberal multilateralism and pseudo-humanitarianism. But Trump’s fascist agenda embraces strongman bilateralism, squeezing out one concession after another using the US’s economic and military might, shunning the usual democratic pretenses of his rival Democrat Party. Trump’s real motive lies in securing a quick end to the conflict to win construction contracts for Ukraine’s rebuilding while laying claim to Ukraine’s rare earth mineral deposits. The latter issue’s significance lies in Trump’s need to decouple its economy from China, the country with the global monopoly on rare earth processing and the eventual target for a US military confrontation. Added to this is the need for Trump’s top administrative advisor Elon Musk to rescue his own rare earth mineral processing for his tech and space empire while the US imposes its own trade war tariffs on China’s vast economic exports. Trump’s move is all in his own economic interests while preparing for even harsher war down the road.

Secondly, the US’s Ukraine announcement and the talks at the Munich Summit prove once and for all that Europe cannot unilaterally rely on the US as its godfather anymore. But NATO’s new Secretary General Rutte made it clear during every minute of the summit that he would tow Trump’s line anyway, while ensuring that tensions with Russia would remain hot. While meeting with US Vice President Vance, Rutte emphasized “the importance of Europeans stepping up to invest more in defense,” while calling on weapons companies to ramp up production. He said that any peace deal regarding Ukraine should include major military buildups in Europe, repeating the same pattern that provoked Russia into launching the war in Ukraine to begin with. In truth, European countries have given more military aid to Ukraine over the years than the US, allocating €70bn ($73bn; £58bn), with the UK announcing an emergency £150 million package upon the US’s peace talk announcement, compared to the US’s equivalent to €64bn. Despite this opportunity to de-escalate the redhot tensions on the continent, Rutte promised to ensure NATO will only increase its war provocations and drown its citizens’ funds in endless war preparations.

Rutte’s rightwing NATO agenda shows that he is more than willing to continue to offer Europe up as the imperialist sidekick of US-led war. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s absence at its own peace talks is proof that the US has only seen Ukraine as nothing but an anti-Russia puppet to begin with, and the Kiev government is now paying the price for offering its destiny up to US overlordship.

In summary, the NATO Security Summit highlighted the deep cracks of disunity within NATO, but this is not a bad thing for the people of Europe or the wider world. This is an opportunity for the peace movement to show a genuine alternative to the profit motivations of NATO leaders and for a Europe independent from the dictates of US-led war. On the streets of Munich outside of the Security Summit, many protested NATO’s aggressive posturing and continued war provocations. The people militantly demand that just and lasting peace be put on the agenda, and this past weekend they proved that they are willing to fight for it.

These protests show the growing movement to resist US-NATO aggression, bases and the militarization of Europe in the build-up to the June NATO Heads of State Summit in the Hague. Let us unite across Europe and around the world to Resist NATO, US-Led Wars, and Militarization Everywhere, and Uphold Peoples’ Rights and Liberation!