Latest news with #mutualassistance
The Guardian
25-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on the Nato summit: Europe must take the path of strategic self-reliance
There is more to Nato than article 5 of its founding charter, but the alliance depends on that commitment to mutual assistance. Enemies are deterred because an attack on one is understood as an attack on all. That is why Donald Trump's record of ambivalence has been so destabilising. Nato leaders, gathered for their annual summit in The Hague this week, were heartened to hear the US president say he is 'with them all the way'. It was a stronger affirmation of the alliance's purpose than the one he had given the previous day. Asked about his commitment to article 5, Mr Trump equivocated, saying: 'It depends on your definition.' That implies some category of tolerable attack on a fellow Nato member. Such ambiguity invites Russia to keep testing the threshold with escalating campaigns of sabotage and provocation on the alliance's eastern border and at sea. But Mr Trump doesn't see Vladimir Putin as an adversary. He speaks warmly of their telephone calls. He doesn't recognise the Russian president's culpability for the war in Ukraine and has shown willingness to broker a peace deal there in terms that would amount to a Kremlin victory. His administration is resisting tighter sanctions on Moscow. By contrast, most European delegates at the summit see Moscow's extreme hostility to the west as by far their most urgent strategic challenge. Mr Putin's rhetoric and the state propaganda machine that promotes his agenda are ferociously bellicose. Ukraine's experience suggests it is unwise to dismiss such language as the stuff of empty threat. The Russian economy is geared to war. Europe needs to upgrade its defence and deterrence systems in response. To that end, Nato members have pledged to spend 5% of GDP by 2035. This is as much an investment in keeping the US engaged as a plan to supplement the shortfall if Mr Trump's support should wane. Previous US presidents expressed frustration with what they saw as European free-riding on Pentagon security guarantees, but none threatened to quit the alliance, as Mr Trump did in 2018. Such volatile unreliability has proved effective as a device for forcing European leaders to do something most recognised they needed to do anyway. Mark Rutte, the Nato secretary-general, pointedly praised the US president for his galvanising effect. 'Dear Donald, you made this change possible,' he said. The fawning style may be required when dealing with an egotistical president, but that very necessity reveals a brittleness in the transatlantic unity on display. Mr Trump's noncommittal caprice is not a minor character foible that can be managed with flattery. It is a function of his inability to conceive of truly reciprocal partnerships between states. He sees other Nato members as vassals and feels no durable obligation to them. He has no affection or respect for democracy and is at home in the company of despots. But he also commands the military power on which European democracies depend for their security, and will continue to depend for some time. There is no easy resolution to this tension, between reliance on the US and the president's inherent unreliability. But there is growing clarity among European democracies that they must expect to take ever more responsibility for their collective security. It is a difficult, expensive path, but the costs and risks of not taking it are surely greater. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
CBC
11-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
'We are all in this fight': B.C. wildfire crews expected to join The Pas fire line on Monday
Social Sharing Wildfire crews from British Columbia are expected to join first responders in Manitoba on Monday to help them battle the largest out-of-control blaze in the province at the moment. "We are at the place right now and, and in this season with current conditions and activity on the landscape that we can provide these couple of unit crews," B.C. Wildfire Service spokesperson Eriks Berg told CBC News on Sunday. The fire — one of two blazes north of The Pas — was first detected on May 3 and grew from 100 hectares to 6,600 within four days, according to Manitoba's fire map. The winds have now pushed it well beyond that, growing out of control to just over 20,000 hectares by Friday and forcing dozens out of their homes. Premier Wab Kinew first announced the deployment of B.C. crews in Manitoba on Friday at an unrelated news conference where he thanked the province for its support. Berg said the wildfire service has deployed two unit crews with 42 members from Vancouver Island and the Southern Interior region. They are staying in the province for 14 days at most and they might be moved to another site later at the discretion of the province — unless the wildfire situation in B.C. worsens, in which case they might be recalled. Resources to battle wildfires are "fairly frequently" shared across Canadian jurisdictions and with international partners, Berg said. The mutual assistance is regulated under agreements facilitated by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre with the intention of allocating available resources where they might be most needed, she said, especially when one region is doing better than another. "We are all in this fight," she said. "[We] need to protect communities and infrastructure across our respective provinces, but then across the country as a whole." Some evacuees can return home Some northern Manitoba residents, forced out by the wildfire near The Pas, can now return home but with the blaze still out of control, local authorities are warning they might be ordered to leave again. Windy and dry conditions, along with warmer temperatures, heightened the risk of the wildfire encroaching the rural municipality. At least 290 residents were evacuated from the rural municipality, while at least 90 more had to leave from the neighbouring Clearwater Lake Provincial Park area. "It is frustrating because the fire is still not under control and we need to keep people safe," Lori Forbes, emergency co-ordinator with the RM, told CBC News. Administrators from the rural municipality have been holding meetings with the province each day to map the response and determine whether the evacuation order remains, Forbes said. After Sunday's meeting the RM announced via social media residents who live within the community at Wanless can go back to their homes after 3 p.m. Residents need to have ID and proof of residency they must show at the roadblock before accessing the community. The evacuation order remains in place for those who live beyond Profit Road to the Saskatchewan border, the municipality said. Evacuees from the East and North Shore are asked to call their association for further information. With the wildfire still listed as volatile and burning out of control, the RM is not discarding the possibility returning residents might be forced out of their homes again. Meanwhile, the evacuation order was lifted earlier this weekend for residents in Clearwater Lake who Forbes said had returned home by Saturday.
