US President Donald Trump, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and French President Emmanuel Macron will be among the leaders of 29 NATO countries attending the summit. The leaders are expected to release a joint statement on their commitment to collective defense. But the public is skeptical because of the many difficulties NATO is now facing.

Challenges come from internal affairs

One of the hottest issues before the summit is the increasing of military spending to 2% of each member country’s GDP. This issue has divided NATO members since the US began criticizing the European members for putting a heavy financial burden on the US.

NATO is also divided over the sharing of operations costs. Turkey’s key NATO allies, especially the US have condemned Turkey’s recent military operations in northeastern Syria. One week before the summit, Turkey released an ultimatum to NATO threatening to veto all alliance plans unless it receives strong political support for its actions against the Kurds in Syria. Turkey’s tough stance has made it more difficult for certain eastern European countries to meet threats from Russia who annexed Crimea in 2014.

Turkey is a NATO member Turkey has confounded its NATO allies by attacking the Kurds in Syria and cooperating with Russia, a NATO rival. President Erdogan’s recent decisions have made other NATO members question Turkey’s membership in the military alliance, even though, they don’t really want to lose Turkey, a strategically located country with enormous military strength.

The NATO’s summit must compete with a number of other serious issues. US President Donald Trump is facing impeachment. French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to deal with a nationwide strike on Thursday. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is on the verge of collapse after its coalition ally – the Social Democratic Party SPD – voted a new management board. In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson will conduct a new Brexit-deciding election in less than a month. Disputes over the Iranian nuclear agreement and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Germany and Russia are also casting a shadow on the summit.

NATO at a new turn

At the London summit, NATO will celebrate its 70^th anniversary and discuss ways to settle the disputes within the alliance. But President Macron said this week that NATO is experiencing brain death citing a lack of coordination between its member. A NATO spokesperson said this will not be a summit but a low level meeting unlikely to produce any joint statement or any future plans.