NATO leaders to meet in London in December

AFP  |  Brussels 

The leaders of NATO's 29 countries will gather in in December for a special meeting to mark the alliance's 70th anniversary, announced Wednesday.

tweeted that the British capital was "the ideal setting to mark 70 years of transatlantic cooperation, as the home of NATO's first HQ back in 1949".

chiefs will be hoping to avoid the high drama of last year's summit in Brussels, when US launched a blistering attack on allies, in particular Germany, for not spending enough on defence.

There had been talk of holding the leaders' meeting in -- where NATO's founding treaty was signed -- but, amid fears of a new transatlantic bust-up, foreign ministers will gather in the US capital in April instead.

also offered to host the December meeting.

"The meeting in will be an opportunity for Allied heads of state and government to address the security challenges we face now and in the future, and to ensure that continues to adapt in order to keep its population of almost one billion people safe," said in a statement.

Though it will gather the alliance's top leaders for talks, the meeting will not have the formal status of a summit.

summits are usually held every two years and conclude with a formal, binding statement of aims and actions agreed by all allies -- such as the 2014 agreement to try to spend two per cent of GDP on defence.

It is yet to be confirmed whether a statement will be issued at December's meeting, but one was not given at the last such gathering in in 2017.

The anniversary comes at a delicate time for NATO, with concerns lingering about Trump's commitment to the alliance and his willingness to honour its mutual self-defence pact.

From the US side, Trump has been unstinting in his criticism of NATO's European members, accusing them of freeloading on the protection offered by the US while not spending enough on their own armed forces.

Before taking office Trump called NATO "obsolete" and soon after July's tumultuous summit, he questioned whether the US would honour the alliance's founding principle of mutual defence for newest member

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First Published: Wed, February 06 2019. 16:35 IST