Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was the first foreign person to be called by the new US Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.

The relevant information appeared on the website of the US military department.

“The two leaders discussed the importance of our shared values, the current security environment, including maintaining a high level of NATO's deterrent and defensive capabilities, and ongoing missions in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Kirby said.

Earlier, Stoltenberg called Biden's inauguration day the beginning of a new chapter in the transatlantic alliance.

He stated that he looks forward to working closely with the 46th President of the United States.

NATO Secretary General noted that the countries of the alliance must unite to counter the threat of terrorism, the policies of China and Russia.

According to Stoltenberg, Western states will not be able to cope with such challenges alone.

"NATO must be strong - this is in the interests of both North America and Europe ... US leadership remains key to working together to defend our democracies, our values, and a rules-based international order," he said. Stoltenberg.

"Restore the status of a security guarantor"

According to Sergei Ermakov, head of the regional security sector at the RISS Center for Defense Studies, Biden inherited a "heavy legacy" from his predecessor in relations with NATO.

In an interview with RT, the expert noted that Trump's policy gave rise to great doubts in European capitals about the readiness of the United States to fulfill the provisions of Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which guarantees direct military assistance to members of the alliance.

  • Donald Trump at the NATO summit in the UK

  • Reuters

  • © Christian Hartmann

Under the cover of this article, NATO tripled the number of rapid reaction forces, deployed a multinational brigade in Romania and combat formations in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland in order to "counter the Russian Federation" against the background of the Ukrainian crisis.

The alliance also stepped up patrolling the airspace over the regions of the Baltic and Black Seas adjacent to the Russian borders.

“The core of NATO's collective defense is unconditional US military aid, but Trump has shaken the Europeans' confidence that they will always be supported.

Now Lloyd Austin and the new White House team will need to make a lot of efforts in an attempt to restore the status of the United States as a guarantor of European security, ”says Ermakov.

At the same time, according to the expert, the deep reason for the crisis in allied relations between the United States and Europe was not Trump's course, but strategic differences in views on security, economy and international relations.

So, according to Sergei Ermakov, during the Trump presidency, military ties with Germany significantly degraded.

The negative impact on relations between Washington and Berlin was mainly caused by disagreements over Nord Stream 2 and Germany's defense spending.

So, Trump demanded that Germany stop building a gas pipeline on the bottom of the Baltic Sea and bring the level of budgetary spending on the army to 2% of GDP.

However, Berlin did not make concessions on Nord Stream 2.

In addition, the authorities of the European state approved a plan according to which such a bar for military spending will be achieved only by 2031.

In response, Trump ordered to reduce the number of American troops in Germany to 25 thousand and to strengthen the military presence in Poland.

“But Germany does not pay dues.

Besides, I was the one who raised this topic.

Everyone is talking about Trump's ties to Russia.

And I said for a long time: why does Germany pay Russia billions of dollars for energy resources, and then we have to defend Germany from Russia?

How it works?

This will not work, "Trump told reporters in June 2020.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the White House's intention to withdraw part of the contingent from the country as a voluntary renunciation of the United States from the status of a world power.

In her opinion, maintaining the American military presence is in the interests of both states and NATO.

Against the backdrop of strained relations with Berlin, Washington has become noticeably closer to Warsaw, which also opposes the implementation of Nord Stream 2.

The United States has signed large contracts with Poland for the supply of military equipment and American liquefied natural gas.

The Democratic camp did not criticize such a course, but the plan to withdraw troops from the FRG was extremely negative.

In July, Biden's senior foreign policy adviser and now candidate for the post of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told Reuters that Trump's decision would be revised.

However, the 46th US President has not yet commented on the situation with the contingent in Germany.

Painful questions

Prior to his election as president, Biden reproached Trump for pursuing a disorderly foreign policy and allegedly succumbing to the influence of Moscow, which, according to the Democrat, expects to split the North Atlantic alliance.

Meanwhile, according to forecasts of experts interviewed by RT, the White House's course towards European allies is unlikely to soften significantly.

The NATO leadership also harbors no illusions on this score.

In late November, in an interview with Funke Mediengruppe, Stoltenberg said that Biden is likely not to abandon the requirement for European allies to strictly adhere to the level of defense spending at 2% of GDP, despite the serious economic losses that Western states suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • American paratroopers on exercises in Latvia

  • Reuters

  • © Ints Kalnins

Part of the Western expert community also believes that under Biden, the United States will not play the role of the unconditional patron of the North Atlantic Alliance.

For example, in November, in an interview with Euronews, an expert on international politics at the American University in Paris, Hall Gardner, noted that a change in administration would not solve the problems facing Europe.

“Europeans should be careful with the Biden administration.

He is still going to put American interests first, not quite the way Trump did, but nonetheless.

Therefore, Europe must attend to the creation of a unified defense, must unite around the Franco-German core - this is the path to common European unity, ”said Gardner.

Sergei Ermakov, in turn, believes that Biden will succeed Trump on a number of issues, including increasing defense spending of European states.

This part of the Republican president's legacy, the expert says, is beneficial to the United States.  

“The issue of meeting the 2% GDP target is very painful.

Trump's position was tough, but America objectively plays into the hands of Europeans to pay more.

I do not exclude that, under Biden, Washington will make concessions to the allies: instead of money, "offset" will be carried out through the provision of military bases to the United States and the expansion of the participation of Europeans in the operations of the alliance, "Yermakov suggested.

Vladimir Batyuk, head of the Center for Political-Military Studies at the Institute for the United States and Canada of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is confident that Biden will not back down from the demand for higher military spending by European states. 

“The requirement to allocate 2% of GDP for defense will remain.

In addition, it is enshrined in the official documents of the alliance.

Another thing is that Washington will insist on this no longer in such a rude manner as Trump did, ”Batyuk said in a commentary on RT.

He also expects the Biden administration to smooth out some corners in relations with the Europeans, but will not be able to bridge the rift between the United States and its allies during the Trump presidency.

“I think that Biden will be able to eliminate only a few excesses.

As before, there will be serious disagreements between the US and Europe.

For example, the Europeans do not want to aggravate relations with China, with which they recently concluded an investment agreement ... There are many contradictions.

In the foreseeable future, American-European relations will definitely not be problem-free, ”Batiuk predicted.