President Barack Obama has yet to meet with the new head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and won'tsee Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg this week, even though he isin Washington for three days.Stoltenbergs office requested a meeting with Obama well in advance of the visit, but never heard anything from the White House, two sources close to the NATO chief told me.
The leaders of almost all the other 28NATO member countries have made time for Stoltenberg since he took over the world's largest military alliance in October. Stoltenberg, twice theprime minister of Norway, met Monday with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Ottawa to discuss the threat of the Islamic State and the crisis in Ukraine, two issues nearthe top of Obama's agenda.
Kurt Volker, who served as the U.S.permanentrepresentative to NATO under both President George W. Bush and Obama, said the president broke a long tradition. The Bush administration held a firm line that if the NATO secretary general came to town, he would be seen by the president...so as not to diminish his stature or authority,he told me.
America'scommitment to defend its NATO allies is its biggest treaty obligation, said Volker,adding thatEuropean security is at its most perilous moment since the Cold War. Russia hasmoved troops and weapons into eastern Ukraine, annexed Crimea, placed nuclear-capable missiles in striking distance of NATO allies, flown strategic-bomber mock runs in the North Atlantic, practiced attack approaches on the U.K. and Sweden, and this week threatened to aim nuclear missiles at Denmarks warships.
It is hard for me to believe that the president of the United States has not found the time to meet with the current secretary general of NATO given the magnitude of what this implies, and the responsibilities of his office, Volker said.
Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, declined to say why Obamadidnt respond to Stoltenbergs request. We dont have any meetings to announce at this time, she told me in a statement. Sources told me thatStoltenberg was able to arrange a last-minute meeting with Defense Secretary Ashton Carter.
According to White House pressreleases, Obama didnt exactly have a packed schedule. On Tuesday, heheld important meetings and a press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani at the White House (Ghani will meet with Stoltenberg while they are both in town). But the only event on Obamas public schedule for Wednesday is a short speech to kick off a meeting related to the Affordable Care Act. On Thursday, he will head to Alabamato give a speech about the economy.
Stoltenberg is in town primarily for the NATO Transformation Seminar, a once-a-year strategic brainstorming session that brings together NATOs leadership with expertsand top officials from the host country. The eventis organized by the Allied Command Transformation in Norfolk, Virginia, and the Atlantic Council.
The focus of this years seminar is to think through how best to update NATOs strategy given real threats in the east and the south, against the backdrop of a dramatically changing world, said Damon Wilson, a former NSC senior director for Europewho isnow with the Atlantic Council. The practical focus is to begin developing the road map to the next NATO summit, which will take place in Warsaw in July 2016, a summit which will presumably be the capstone and last summit for the Obama administration.
Last year, the seminar was hosted in Paris, and then-NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussengot a separate bilateral meeting with President Francois Hollande of France.
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Obama Snubs Nato Chief as Crisis Rages - Bloomberg View
