Spearheaded by National Security Adviser John Bolton, President Donald Trump’s top security officials rushed to finish the formal policy agreement for July’s NATO summit before the event even began to shield it from Trump’s explosions, according to a Thursday New York Times report.
After Trump’s disastrous behavior at the G7 summit in Brussels and refusal to sign off on the communique, the national security team hustled to make sure an agreement was pulled together that would let NATO take important action—like strengthening defenses against Russia—no matter Trump’s mood during the summit.
Emissaries from the other NATO countries, well versed in Trump’s unpredictability, hewed to the American security team’s expedited timeline, dropping some of the smaller negotiations and squabbles that usually accompany these sort of deals.
The final deal invited Macedonia to the military alliance over Russia’s objections, established an Atlantic Command post in the U.S. to coordinate responses between America and her allies in the case of attack and pledged all allies to bolster their military readiness by 2020.
Due to the forced cooperation under the tight timeline and lack of presidential interference, the completed deal has a lot of heft.
“When you read the communiqué, and take into account the work that took place, this is one of the meatiest NATO summits that I can recall,” Deborah Lee James, secretary of the Air Force in the Obama administration, told the Times.