NATO Took Some Knocks But Survives Its 70th Anniversary Party

  • Biggest risk, a Macron-Erdogan meeting passed politely
  • Summit ‘in like a lion, out like a lamb’: ex-U.S. Ambassador

NATO and national flags of member countries in fly in London on Dec. 3, 2019. 

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

NATO’s 70th turned out to be less like a birthday party and more a Thanksgiving dinner for a large dysfunctional family: Not all of them got on, a few snide remarks were made, but in the end everyone seemed to accept they’re stuck with each other.

After a tumultuous build-up in which French President Emmanuel Macron had warned that the alliance might not reach its 75th anniversary intact, and Turkey threatened to hold a key planning document hostage, even U.S. President Donald Trump came to NATO’s defense.