In effect, the USA appoints NATO chiefs.
Ben Wallace is a former soldier who attended Sandhurst Military academy. He is currently Member of UK Parliament for Wyre & Preston North Constituency. and is the UK Secretary of State for Defence. He was looking at a new post with NATO but this was thwarted.
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| Evening Standard 12 July 2023 |
Jens Staltenburg is a member of the Norweigan Labour Party and a former Prime Minister of Norway . He has been Secretary General of the anti Russian military alliance called North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) since October 2014. The post of Secretary General of NATO is initially for 4years and can be extended thereafter by mutual consent of member nations. . Nato website says :
"As Prime Minister of Norway, Mr. Stoltenberg increased the defence spending and transformed the Norwegian armed forces with new high-end capabilities and investments. He also signed an agreement with Russia on establishing maritime borders in the Barents and Polar Sea, ending a 30-years dispute".
On Tues 4th July 2023, Reuters and other media reported that Stoltenburg 's contract has been extended again until Oct 1st 2024. This comes at the same time as UK's Ben Wallace saying that he has been blocked from becoming Nato chief by the USA progressive equity driven Biden administration.
The Economist: In his interview with Economist on 21st June 2023, Ben Wallace had said that USA Biden preferred Jens Staltenburg to remain in place as NATO Chief. In The Telegraph it was also reported that President Biden would prefer Staltenburg's successor to be Ursula Von Der Leyen .
Ursula von der Leyen is the 13th president of the European Commission. She has held the post since 2019. She previously served in the then German Federal Government of Angela Merkel. There are some complaints about her performance as German defence minister . Politico reports that under her management, the bundeswehr (German armed forces ) was underfunded and run down and incapable of carrying out it's purpose.
Von Der Leyen appears to have built up a good rapport with the left wing Biden administration since 2019 and appears to be the leader to contact when the US president wants to call Europe.
Biden stops off in UK to see PM Sunak and the King
On Sunday 9th July 2023, the USA president Joe Biden arrived on UK soil. This was no doubt to get the ducks in a row prior to the NATO Vilnius meeting, and to smooth things with Sunak (no doubt stung by the Ben Wallace rejection, and cluster munitions banned by UK).
Evil weapons the sign of desperation
The sending of cluster weapons by USA (banned by most member nations) is a sign of desperation on the part of USA / NATO. The UK has also been one of the countries to send depleted Uranium weapons. The Uranium is used to assist tracking and also for its destructive potential.
A single cluster bomb is dropped from an aircraft and when it gets near to the ground it releases hundreds of small bomblets across a wide area. These may be explosives which detonate instantly , or may sit there and detonate when they sense movement nearby. Some are made of plastic so as to be more difficult to detect . Others make a device jump a couple of feet in to the air and fire projectiles in all directions. They are designed to deny access or use of an area and to maim or kill the enemy. They are evil because they will kill anyone innocent or not and will remain in place for many years to kill any unwary passer by (including children) .
USA Joe Biden appears to be exempt from UK cluster bomb legislation when he visits UK as head of state.
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| Cluster Bomb Prohibition |
Nato summit in Vilnius Lithuania
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| CNN report on Turkey 10 July 2023 |
Main outcomes
- New NATO member Finland attended the meeting in Vilnius.
- Erdogan of Turkey gave the nod for Sweden to be allowed to apply and join.
- Turkey EU application to make progress
- Sweden to suppress the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which is regarded a bunch of terrorists by Turkey.
- NATO members agree to spend 2% of Gross Domestic Product annually on defence.
- Send cluster bombs because everyone is running out of ammo.