NATO is 'Powerless to Meet the Real Threat of International Terrorism'

© AFP 2023 / Petras MalukasA US Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft flies at the Air Base of the Lithuanian Armed Forces in Šiauliai, Lithuania, on April 27, 2016 behind flags of US, Lithiania and the NATO
A US Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft flies at the Air Base of the Lithuanian Armed Forces in Šiauliai, Lithuania, on April 27, 2016 behind flags of US, Lithiania and the NATO - Sputnik International
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The North Atlantic Alliance lacks the capacity to tackle real threats like international terrorism, focusing instead on the imaginary threat emanating from Russia, political analyst Alexander Perendzhiev, a lecturer at the Plekhanov Russia University of Economics, told Radio Sputnik.

"What is NATO today? The bloc is not even a commercial project, but rather a scam. It is essentially meant to ensure that certain people become richer while speaking about a threat which does not exist. At the same time NATO is powerless to meet the real threat of international terrorism. Moreover, when a terrorist act takes place, each member state is forced to deal with this threat on its own," he said.

The US-led North Atlantic Alliance has largely built its current strategy around the notion that Russia is ostensibly increasingly "assertive" and as a result poses a threat to its neighbors, if not other regions. Moscow has consistently denied these baseless claims. 

"There are European elites making a profit on projects like NATO. They cannot come up with an ideology for their enrichment other than the 'threat from Russia.' They have hugely profited from it," the political analyst asserted.

U.S. President Donald Trump, flanked by Senior Advisor Jared Kushner (standing, L-R), Vice President Mike Pence, Staff Secretary Rob Porter and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, welcomes reporters into the Oval Office for him to sign his first executive orders at the White House in Washington, U.S. January 20, 2017 - Sputnik International
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Perendzhiev further said that Washington does not benefit from keeping NATO afloat, suggesting that the bloc is in fact a burden rather than an asset.

"The United States has suffered immense losses to maintain this project. It has been unprofitable in the sense that it does not correspond with US national interests. It has also contributed to the US national debt growing," he explained, saying that decision makers in the US need to drastically alter America's economic and foreign policies.

US President Donald Trump has recently called NATO "obsolete" since the organization has been unable to deal with terrorism, something which has become more apparent in Europe in recent years as high-profile attacks rocked France, Germany and Belgium. He has also criticized NATO members for not allocating 2 percent of their GDP on defense.

US Colonel Christopher Norrie is pictured during a welcome ceremony at the Polish-German border in Olszyna, Poland on January 12, 2017 - Sputnik International
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Last year, only five countries, comprising the United States, Greece, Great Britain, Estonia and Poland met this requirement, prompting the US president to say that this was "very unfair" to the US. 

However, Trump said that the alliance was "very important" to him. US Secretary of Defense James Mattis has also reaffirmed that the US is committed to the bloc.

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