Riyadh Meeting May Be ‘Beginning of the End of NATO’: Ex-DoD Analyst Explains Why
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Russian and US officials held high-level talks in the Saudi capital Tuesday, outlining each side's position on bringing about a resolution to the conflict in Ukraine as the greatest security crisis in Europe since WWII nears its third anniversary. Sputnik reached out to a leading independent US international affairs observer for comment.
"The approach that the Europeans want and Ukrainians want" for ending the Ukrainian proxy conflict through victory on the battlefield against Russia has "just proven not to work, and they don't seem to be capable of defending themselves," Michael Maloof says, noting that the meeting in Riyadh signals a tectonic shift in global geopolitics.
"I envision that this is going to be the beginning of the end of NATO, that this is going to mean that ultimately you're going to see Europe maybe go into a series of defense alliances, regional alliances, rather than one cohesive entity of 32 countries," the former DoD senior security policy analyst noted.
“32 countries will never be able to arrive at a unanimous decision on anything, given the realities on the ground today. And we see that now. There is no cohesiveness in NATO nor in the EU,” the observer explained.
Tuesday's meeting signals US recognition of several key facts, Maloof says:
that Russia and the US, not Europe, much less the Zelensky regime, are the “strategic partners” critical to ending the Ukraine conflict.
that the US “has basically decided” to try and “reestablish what are basically spheres of influence” rather than to continue to pursue global unipolarity.
the US is no longer willing “to continuously back up Europe's wars all the time…You see this as a result of Trump looking more into the Western Hemispheric region, focusing more on Greenland, Panama, Canada, as opposed to Europe.”
Trump appears committed in principle to fixing a “broken” relationship with Moscow, and treating Russia as “strategic equals, not talking down to them as the Biden administration did.”
Trump, “a major economics guy,” also recognizes that the US cannot wage conflicts worldwide, and would rather resolve differences with adversaries “through economic competition and cooperation,” according to the observer.
Europe has already “cut off their nose to spite their face,” and simply doesn’t “have the ability” to continue the Ukraine proxy war even if it wanted to, Maloof says.
“They cut off cheap gas and oil for their own industries, quality of living and production capabilities. They did this to themselves. The population of these countries is saying what have you done? And you see a distinction between what the elites and leadership want as opposed to the people themselves,” the observer emphasized.
