Blinken sees NATO support regardless of far-right gains in Europe

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday he expected European allies to keep up strong support for NATO despite a far-right victory in the first round of French elections.

Blinken steered clear of commenting directly when asked about the triumph of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party but pointed more broadly to NATO’s strengthening since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The alliance is moving to make sure that we have the right defenses across the alliance where they’re needed, where they matter,” Blinken said at the Brookings Institution.

“This has been a clear trajectory for the last three and a half years. I don’t actually see that changing irrespective of the politics of the moment in Europe,” he said.

“We have very strong allies, very strong partners,” he said, pointing in particular to Italy — led by its most right-wing leader since World War II, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has bucked some of her political allies by supporting Ukraine.

Since Russia’s invasion, NATO has added two new members — Finland and Sweden — taking its total to 32, and 23 of them now meet a goal set a decade ago of spending two percent of GDP on defense.

France’s National Rally has long been tainted by its relationship with Russia but its leader Jordan Bardella, who could become the next prime minister, said in a recent debate that he would not let Russia “absorb an allied state like Ukraine.”

NATO holds a 75th anniversary summit in Washington next week which comes in the shadow of criticism of the alliance from Republican presidential contender Donald Trump.