As leaders gather in Washington, uncertainties and confusion follows them. The shadow of ‘“For how long?” looming.
On Monday afternoon Russia went full throttle savage. As Vladmir Putin was shaking hands with Prime Minister Modi, embracing and sharing diplomatic laughs, a barrage of missiles was dropped on Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital. Okhmatdyt, Ukraine’s largest paediatric clinic, renowned for its cancer treatment and a place many of the children had called home for months, was reduced to rubbles killing 36 people.
Okhmatdyt hospital in Kyiv for long has been a critical lifeline for Ukraine’s most severely ill children with complex diseases. Throughout the war, its doctors have faced the challenging task of saving children injured in Russian shelling while also caring for those with pre-existing conditions.
On Monday the critical lifeline was ripped apart, shattered and reduced to dust. The attack was barbaric. During one of its busiest and full time, the hospital was targeted. As read in Guardian, one of the surgical rooms, where doctors had been operating on a child, was reduced to rubble. Images from inside the hospital showed bloodied children, collapsed ceilings and destroyed operating rooms. Unknown number till time remain trapped in debris.
The strike was part of one of the heaviest attacks on the capital since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
The attack has shaken the World. Condemnations have poured in; anger has been unleashed. Volodymyr Zelenskiy has vowed retaliation. NATO has received their first order of business which needs urgent and immediate addressing. Russia’s missile attack has highlighted Ukraine’s air defence vulnerabilities.
This week NATO leaders are gathering in Washington for their annual summit. And to celebrate its 75th anniversary. To bid adieu to Jens Stoltenberg, to welcome new UK leader Keith Starmer. They will once raise their glasses to vow to fight the same fight of 1949 when it was founded to deter the former Soviet Union from further expansion in Europe. 75 years to then and now the enemy remains Russia and its evilness.
And though the enemy remains the same, NATO is not the same. 75th anniversary was meant to convince the World, Russia, Putin and other potential adversaries a united confident alliance of strongman ship. But as leaders gather in Washington, uncertainties and confusion follows them. The shadow of ‘“For how long?” looming. Partly this is owing to external threats, but mainly it is because of the internal convulsions. Prominently over the return of former President Donald J. Trump.
For Trump, NATO is “obsolete,” and had threatened to exit the alliance. More recently he said he would let the Russians do “whatever the hell they want”. In recent days, as Trump edges over Joe Biden in post-debate polls, key European allies have begun discussing what a second Trump term might mean for the alliance — and whether it could take on Russia without American arms, money and intelligence-gathering at its center.
NATO has come a long way in its 75 years. It has grown from 12 members in 1949 to 32 today as the era of superpower conflict has roared back. Last year’s summit in Vilnius approved NATO’s first detailed plans to defend allied territory since the cold war. This year 23 allies are expected to meet or exceed the target of spending 2% of GDP on defence, compared with three in 2014, when the pledge was formalised.
But with the rise of nationalist populism in the West, NATO is under threat. It has been already grappling with the likes of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Viktor Orban, the leaders of Turkey and Hungary, delaying the accession of Finland and Sweden. The possibility of Trump is overarching. Though Joe Biden in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC on last week said that he would welcom the scrutiny from NATO and added rhetorically, “Who’s going to hold NATO together like me?”.
“I guess a good way to judge me,” he said, is to watch him at the summit — and to see how the allies react. “Come listen. See what they say.”
As they arrived, NATO leaders acknowledged that the alliance was facing a test they did not anticipate: whether it could credibly maintain the momentum it has built in supporting Ukraine when confidence in its most important player has never been more fragile. 75th anniversary after all will be marked when the number of children dead from Okhmatdyt hospital would rise. It will have to slice through the rise of populism, nationalism, through the possibility of the return of Trump and convey confidence in the time that is being brutally marred with confrontations and war. NATO will need to get their orders in order or else 75th anniversary could became the last bash before the bash.
