libya about that was a that was a war of choice nato decided to get involved in libya nato got itself involved 'd in iraq it got itself involved in syria got involved 'd in afghanistan none of these things has brought has brought any kind of security to europe which is the again real sensible justification for nature. and now with its with its constant drumbeat of hostility toward russia again it is not bringing any kind of security to europe because it only leads to confrontations a very you know which could get quite gnostic. 1 in the baltics and in the in the black sea so because of the whole nato who log all it's actually creating. security threats that it. claims to be the solution to war but of course it isn't so so that what you're saying is that they they're doubling down on a mistake ok instead of realizing it was them then you have their new policies justified to alleviate the mistake that was originally made iraq that's exactly right so. they way they way they justify their existence is by exacerbating threats and then 'd they say well a things are worse we need nato bad be

nato allies welcome the change in tone from the u.s. administration the alliance relies on you as forces for logistical support in afghanistan and secretary general stoltenberg made it clear that nato wants leave before the time is right to clear hands that there may deadline could be extended. or ongoing event in this. decision to say. he has. but how they continue remains a big question. well the report was produced by the douglas brussels bureau chief an example of naaman who joins us now welcome alexandra given the intensified fighting by the taliban on this new u.s. administration the pragmatic view seems to be the time for withdrawal is not yet rice so is anyone likely to argue strongly for nato getting out not really there seems to be a common understanding indeed that it's not the right time to pull out a german foreign minister. today also warned that the peace talks between the government in kabul and the taliban didn't make enough progress yet and when you talk to nato officials there they also would tell you that a hasty and

and if nato withdraws from these it brings into question why nato exists it will be interesting to see however now that nato is retooling itself to confront russia in the baltics and poland us oblique by expanding into ukraine whether or not nato will be excited to expand its precious military resources on your failed missions in iraq afghanistan and at the expense of you know its new and exciting no post cold war confrontation with russia nato is just a struggling organization that struggling to find relevance it's struggling to find an identity and i think you know iraq and afghanistan are representative of this just a pretty touch another issue still very head of nato said scott russia and china are trying to quote rewrite the world order this significance of such rhetoric aggressive rhetoric i suppose. why do that. well because nato is a byproduct of this coast room war 2 rules based order international order that the united states imposed on the world. you know when they say international rules based order means rules written by the united states for the united states the world ha

for nato there was supposedly a. a soviet threat that people forget nato actually predates the warsaw pact but the less there was at least the rationale that you know the russians were going to do were army there were early on there on the other but it became you know out of the end of the cold war it became much harder to justify 1 nature's existence of that one nato's purpose was to exert us hegemony over europe some say well and death for you had to continually escalate the various threats that europe faced and why need it was necessary so we originally have the instant the threat from instability and instability will lead to humanitarian crisis that will lead to refugee flows therefore nato has to be there to stop instability then we have the global war on terror again well we have terrorists we have to fight them over there on the other before they come over here so. you know it was back to russia so we know we have to sort of the cold war ducks russia is this. huge threat so it's always a matter of trying to ju

and nato afraid to do it? david? david: i think sanctions have not really been ramped up in a serious way. we need to test that theory more seriously and by major sanctions against russian individuals. it is going to reach a point at some point this year with the elections, which will be pretty extreme in russia, to sanction putin himself. sanctioning people around him has not been enough, but i think if we started discussions about sanctioning mr. putin, that might be a u.s. only sanction. it is hard for me to envision league member states supporting a decision. negotiations from the past of not worked, visits to moscow have not worked, and it needs to be part of the larger strategy to push back against cyber attacks and hacking's to show them what we are capable of. nobody wants a confrontation with moscow but mr. can is showing he is not backing down. he is firing arrows right now toward us as the new administration gets settled in and he is testing the europeans and tightening the pressure on cancellation of the

this decision is not just compatible with nato but very consistent with nato. and this is why i strongly believe that these decisions to make more together at the european scale is completely the interest of the united states. why? because when you look at the past decades in nato, the u.s. was the only one in charge in a certain way of our own security. and the burden sharing as some former and present leaders were pushing, this is not fair. this is true. the relation became progressively insane. in a certain way, being part of nato was getting access to the umbrella of the u.s. army. and the counterpart was getting access to the contract and buying u.s. materials. and for me, this is a lose/lose approach for european countries and for the united states. why? first because this is not sustainable to have -- u.s. soldiers being in europe and in our neighborhood involved in such a scale without clear and direct interest. at a point of time, we have to be much more in charge of our neighbors. sustainability in a democratic society was a risk. second it was, for m

at nato. obviously with the new administration, we can say we will have a more cooperative appropriate. this is definitely sure. look at the middle east, africa is our neighbor. it is not the u.s. neighborhood. this is matter of fact. i just speak about geography. i remember a few years ago when we spoke about syria, as a fair and democratic decision of the u.s. administration, finally was not to make an operation and an attack after the use of chemical weapons. and this decision left the european without the ability to do it on their own. and i think it's definitely weakened the credibility of nato, but it weakened the europeans themselves because we're not speaking about a place very far from us. speaking about syria in 2013 was speaking about a place where the terrorist attack in paris, november 2015 were prepared. so i speak about my own security. this is why i think the europeans have to understand that we do need this corporation, this interoperability and this intimate work with the u.s

and nato became a rather for donald trump often criticized the nato alliance he said that the u.s. was but he felt funding it far more than other countries particularly european partners donald trump even threatening to pull the u.s. out of nato one point so really the relationship between the u.s. and nato at an all time low you might say under the trumpet ministration what we understand is the biden in mr administration wants a far more traditional you might say our relationship with nato we've already heard from the u.s. u.s. defense secretary saying that the biden administration wants to work using diplomacy and teamwork so i think those will be welcome messages for young stoltenberg the nato secretary general to think about the talk about their own parents let's speak not to call q. jean who's the executive director of the european student joins us live by skype from brussels screeching welcome to the program should nato. mission in afghanistan is on change does that mean that the 10000 troops from nato allies will stay put. i think what this actually general of nato has said

or in the nato organization. i would not attach significant strategic importance to this current dispute. it is the same story of french views versus german views from the 1960s to the present. some things in history don't change so quickly. >> can't remember if it was winston churchill who said the heaviest cross i have to bear is the cross of lorraine. >> it was conrad eisenhower -- he was home at core who said, i remember, when he said in my presence, a smart idea to bow your head twice, paying special tribute, it was a smart move, amended seriously. germany and france and the wars that have been fought in 1870-71 or through the end of world war ii and it is good to be respectful of france if you come from germany and it has created a very trusting relationship and i hope yesterday, the former president of france passed away at 94 or so, the older generation will remember regarding staff as president of france and helmut schmidt as chancellor of germany in the late 1970s and early 1980s worked to gather to the

and nato agreed to withdraw all troops by may of this year. in return, the taliban promised to cut all ties with al qaeda and end a violence in afghanistan. violence in afghanistan has surged. our correspondent is in kabul. >> blasting their way in. to a besieged building. afgh police on the hunt for suicide bombers, and civilians trapped inside. it's a training exercise, but it is all too real. if the u.s. steel breaks down -- u.s. deal breaks down, there will be more of this, they warned. the interior minister thanks his men. afghan police often come under criticism as corrupt and ineffectiv these are the elite. as soldiers, they are on the front lines as peace talks stalled. president biden said what should american fort -- if president biden said wt should american forces do, what would you say? >> i would say the taliban agreed to cut their relationship with terrorists. did they respect that? did they keep peace? if not, the international community will remain an afghan as long as needed. >> a taliban call to arms. they insist they have k

the 2 missions become intertwined and then nato which has made a big point of saying hey we're being invited by the iraqi government which is the opposite that the situation currently exists regarding u.s. forces this is just a horrible situation that underscores 2 realities one that nato is not a politically mature organization capable of making independent decisions and has been pushed into this direction by the united states into the united states is in a dire situation where it can no longer unilaterally impose its will and it increasingly has to rely on partners and his nato to do the heavy lifting for the. russians accuse the brussels of politicizing the battle against the coronavirus chief listen to funding and a question moscow's motives and offering to aid the block with its vaccine. we are perplexed to hear assessments by the head of the you exactly as it is either an effort to politicize the issue in an insubstantial dated and indeed deplorable way or indicates an inadequate level of awareness of the top level official we still wonder why russia is offering theoretically m

defense secretary lloyd austin held a briefing at the pentagon where he talked about recent meetings with nato allies. he discussed challenges including climate change, terrorism threats, and policies toward china, russia, iraq, and afghanistan. this is about half an hour. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. i will turn this over to the secretary in just a minute. he'll have a few opening comments and then we will get to your questions. as you know we're going to be doing questions from the phone and in the room so i will go two room. the secretary has 30 minutes so we will try and move this crisply given the restriction of time and his schedule, i would ask you to limit your follow-ups if you can, meaning limit them to zero. with that, mr. secretary, over to you. sec. austin: good afternoon, everyone. thanks to all of you for being here today. before i start let me just say that i deeply appreciate the work that you do on behalf of the public. i respect the way you cover our military and i respect the role that you play in holding us accountable for how we defend the nation. and that is

and what about relations between nato and the biden ministration. well not surprisingly most allies were happy with a biden win even if you don't necessarily support all of his politics simply a return to normalcy or return to consultations as you heard president biden say would be a great asset to the alliance who constantly had to wonder when these policies were announced just how much support they had within the administration how much other experts had been consulted on them and whether they would actually happen at all let's just take that example about the troop movements out of germany very disturbing for some in the u.s. government as well as as the german government and other allies and then simply nothing happened so you just never knew how deep these policies ran and you know the future of u.s. troops in afghanistan that remains unresolved i want you to take a listen to what nato secretary general said about that today. because we are faced with a. real dilemma are there to to leave. this is stated in the u.s. tol'able agreement or to sta

a friday's talks came just the day after a virtual meeting of nato defense ministers now about ended in the military bloc secretary-general unveiling a must simply expanded mission in iraq insisting the measure would fight terror today we decided to expand nato training mission in iraq to support the iraq it forces us to fight terrorism and ensure that our system is not returned the size so our mission will increase from 500 personnel to wrong 4000 and trained here to this will now include more iraq to security situations areas beyond bugout a former u.s. marine corps intelligence officer scott ritter told us who he thinks stands behind nato is ron paul in the middle east. when you're beyond baghdad out in the boonies in remote facilities training iraqi security forces that are in constant contact with with with isis or other extremist enemies there will be losses in nato is not configured to do this that prepared politically to do this so then the question is who will provide the combat backup and that of course is the united states and once united states employs combat force in sup

as the main challenges facing nato today. well i think 1st of all the alliance has to continue doing everything required to maintain cohesion and the respect for each other the commitment each other this is this is really important because this is where our potential adversaries fear the most is our 30 nations sticking together the secretary general has talked about the need to prevent large capability gaps especially with the growth and speed of technological change this is important but i think the strategic concept is also about ensuring we have a strong european pillar not a european pillow as the united states looks to china as its long term strategic rival and so the united states does not have the capacity to deter russia contain iran protect locums and deal with a rising china led by the chinese communist party so i think the alliance focusing on its core mission of deterrence and defense in europe is really important. so hard yes thank you very much for your insights that was her trier to us what tenet general ben ho

but -- nato troops stayed in place. what happened was security leadership was handed to the afghans. by the end of last year, president trump said the u.s. would withdraw further troops, leaving only 2 1/2,0 -- 2,500 there. it's a complex history with a long history and any decisions on keeping or removing troops will have major ramifications for the country and for the region. perhaps that explains the delay in a decision being made. our chief international correspondent has been speaking to the secretary general of nato, jens. >> if your decision about when you leave hinges on the peace process, you could be in afghanistan for many years to come. it's a long road ahead, as you know. jens: absolutely. as i said, there are no easy options in afghanistan, and we face many difficult dilemmas. if we decide to stay beyond the first of may, we risk more violence against our troop and, of course, we risk the continued long-term development in the difficult operation in afghanistan. if we leave, we risk afghanistan once again

well nato has consistently played a role of trying to contain russia look at nato i did libya to yugoslavia this countless examples of this quote unquote transatlantic partnership certainly donald trump was very bad for some wings of the ruling interests here in the united states so i think it is frightening but we remember obama's pivot to china to asia we see chinese growth we see these massive trading blocs we should be excluded the u.s. we see more countries whether it's portugal or others gravitating more towards the sphere of chinese economic influence in this is what scares the united states so they're trying to set up camp with their junior partners historically. england france japan so they continue they can continue to compete with china and try to go out you know yeah it was quite a few combative statements by china moscow as well both presented as terrible threats the western security who gains from keeping this tension going. all we know very well again the military industrial complex the united states needs bogeymen the arms industry that is like the human clones need oxygen s

coming up from munich conference came home on the heels of a meeting between nato defense ministers in which they outlined plans to put thousands lost bits on the ground have romped one point people on the story later in the press room. the charity outside the school g 77 countries pledges to donate not things to the developing world to insufficient compared to the threat posed by coates the group is also the case the states of making poor nations wait for quote leftover vaccines. making huge piles of africa and asia wait for and wanted leftover vaccines from rich countries stalks is not just immoral poor countries should not be forced to wait for vaccines to trickle down to them between them g 7 nations have secured enough vaccines for everyone of this citizens to be vaccinated 3 times over while many poor countries a year to receive a single dose a common follows an online g 7 meeting where leaders announced billions of extra euro in support of the global kovacs scheme the move comes as british prime minister boris johnson valid to donate to most of the u.k. surplus vaccines to devel

as you know i just wrapped up my first nato defense ministrial, yesterday, and i want to thank general secretary stalltelburg for making that happen. it's tougher to meet with people in a pandemic, and even though we met virtually, we still enjoyed productive discussions about a range of challenges facing nato today. and many that we are going to face in the future, and they include a resurgent russia, and disruptive technologies, climate change and an ongoing war in afghanistan, and the persistent threat of terrorism and an increasingly aggressive china. we were joined in some of those conversations by representatives from some of our most capable partners including finland and sweden and the european union, and we appreciated their unique perspectives especially about china. indeed i applaud nato's work on china and i made it clear that the united states is committed to defending the international rules base order, which china has consistently undermined for its own interests. we here at the pentagon and the department of defense view china as our primary pacing challenge and we beli

nato allies welcome the change in telling from the u.s. administration the alliance relies on you as forces for logistical support in afghanistan and secretary general stoltenberg made it clear that nato wants leave before the time is right to clear hands that there may deadline could be extended things there's no decision or the ongoing event in this case and that from my point you can only be a decision to say these stay has it is for that i mean that means he continued but how they continue remains a big question after 20 years of military presence in afghanistan elyse are growing increasingly war weary they've been successful in defeating al qaeda by had to realize they didn't have the capacity to really ingenue afghanistan they wanted to coordinate their next steps knowing that the price for leaving too soon could be very high earlier i spoke with retired u.s. lieutenant general ben hodges about the challenges nato is facing he told me that more european commitment in the alliance was needed. the secretary general has talked about the

marine corps intelligence officer scott ritter told us who he thinks stands behind nato as ramp up in the middle east when you're beyond baghdad out in the boonies in remote facilities training iraqi security forces that are in constant contact with with with isis or other extremist enemies there will be losses in nato is not configured to do this that prepared politically to do this so then the question is who will provide the combat backup and that of course is the united states and once united states employs combat force in support of nato the 2 missions become intertwined and then nato which has made a big point of saying hey we're being invited by the iraqi government which is the opposite of that the situation currently exists regarding u.s. forces this is just a horrible situation that underscores 2 realities one that nato is not a politically mature organization capable of making independent decisions and has been pushed into this direction by the united states into the united states is in a dire situation where it can no longer unilaterally impose its will and it increasingly

for the up to munich conference came hot on the heels of a meeting between nato defense ministers in which they outlined plans to put thousands more troops on the ground in iraq will bring you more and months later in the program. spain is suffering a fortnight of riots over the jailing of a council and rapper publisher cell was arrested for quote slandering the crown and glorifying terrorism protesters have rallied across the country to oppose his detention branding it a violation of his right to free speech and around 80 people have been arrested since the start of the protests as things turned ugly during the unrest the country's prime minister denounced the violence as an attack on democracy barcelona based journalist evelyn a kocinski reports from among the crowds in catalonia as capital. leave. the house so they're screaming stop these streets pablo so it's already deferred day of the practice even kept a long barstool on the main city to release problem house who was imprisoned for. screaming this is their aggression on the freedom of expression and there are. these. so the pr

nato allies welcome the change in tone from the u.s. administration the alliance relies on you as forces for logistical support in afghanistan and secretary general stoltenberg made it clear that nato wants leave before the time is right to clear hands that there may deadline could be extended there's no decision what is the on go event in this case and from what you can only decision to say is let's say he has it is for me and that means he continued but how they continue remains a big question will report produced by the w.'s brussels bureau chief at xander from naaman who joins us now welcome alexandra so given the intensified fighting from the taliban and the new administration the pragmatic view seems to be the time is not yet right to withdraw or so is anyone likely to argue for a nato drawdown. i don't think so it really seems that there is a common understanding that it's not the right time to pull out the german defense minister said before the meeting started to that she didn't think that there was enough progress and the talk

also discussed with nato partners levels of beilenson continue to increase in. attacks often unclaimed but attributed to the taliban are on the rise and that's left particularly afghan women concerned about a future where the taliban could play an important role. aided doesn't stay long on the street she wants to get inside quickly afghanistan's best known model poses for the camera without a veil embodying the lifestyle of many of today's young afghans. the 26 year old has found fame as an influencer with more than 200000 instagram followers it's an image of the modern woman which the taliban cannot accept and i do receives regular death threats. that person has all know that i worry that if the taliban become part of the government all the progress we have made in the last few years will be lost i studied abroad and returned home to set up a modeling business that if we lose our freedoms and women have to stay at home again then i will be forced to leave my homeland. but i once found. nothing in kabul can be taken for granted especially not a yoga class factor

and what about relations between nato and the bike ministration. well not surprisingly most allies were happy with a biden win even if you don't necessarily support all of his politics simply a return to normalcy or return to consultations as you heard president biden say would be a great asset to the alliance who constantly had to wonder when these policies were announced just how much support they had within the administration how much other experts had been consulted on them and whether they would actually happen at all let's just take that example about the troop movements out of germany very disturbing for some in the u.s. government as well as as the german government and other allies and then simply nothing happened so you just never knew how deep these policies ran and you know the future of u.s. troops in afghanistan that remains unresolved i want you to take a listen to what nato secretary general said about that today. because we are faced with a. real dilemma order to leave. stated in the us told the agreement or to stay. we will assess

commitment to nato as part of their g.d.p. as i know who touched upon just my got one more point on the russia he said joe biden said he'd be ready to quote raise the cost on moscow what how do you feel that that's going to be taken by the administration do you think he's already talking sanctions. sure i mean that's that's their normal go to and but everything has been sanctioned already 2 or 3 times and this really i think it's just a show of toughness but what is the reality what is going to do then if there are sanctions died which actually some people within the administration you're right how have you we've heard appearances all that what else could be done anything. not not much they they may try to drawl greater wedges between moscow and and also. turkey for example but the thing that i'm really concerned about is that what you're going to see with israel and and that the need by by biden to join the j c p o way or the iranian nuclear agreement to rejoin now moscow does support that. but and it's really in iran centris

has consistently played a role of trying to contain russia look at nato i did libya to yugoslavia this countless examples of this quote unquote transatlantic partnership certainly donald trump was very bad for some wings of the ruling interests here in the united states so i think it is frightening but we remember obama's pivot to china to asia we see chinese growth in this is what scares the united states so they're trying to set up camp with their junior partners historically. england france japan so they continue they can continue to compete with china and the subsequent online d'sevyn summit focused heavily on the pandemic with need of pledging billions of extra hero in support of the kind of angst global that thing. shall i do but if he has some of the key takeaways from the event. conveyed 19 the high on the agenda virtual summit of the g 7 with leaders pledging plenty of cash to try and help the kovacs program this is the global rollout of cove it 19 is still a volatile a in from the e.u. said they would double their offering to $1000000000.00 euros in total around $7500000000.0

to me the conference came hot on the heels of a meeting between nato defense ministers and which they outline plans to put thousands more boots on the ground in iraq and bring more on that later in the program. spain has suffered a 4th night of riots over the jailing of a camel and a rapper public was arrested for quote slamming the crown and glorifying terrorism protesters have rallied across the country to oppose his detention running a violation of his right to sprit speech on 80 people have been arrested since the protests started things turned ugly during the unrest the country's prime minister denounced the violence as an attack on democracy barcelona based journalists even the reports from a. the crowds in colonias capital. so they're screaming so peace treaties. already defer to the practice even kept a long distance on the main c t 2 release problem how so who was imprisoned for. screaming this is their aggression on the freedom pressure and there are. these. so the protesters have just destroyed one of the main banks of qatar long. as you can see behind me. they are getting

because when you look at the past decades and nato, the u.s. was the only one in charge of our own security and the burden sharing as some of our former and current leaders was not fair. in a certain way, being part of nato was getting access to the u.s. army and the counterpart was biting u.s. materials. so this was the approach for the european countries and the united states first because this isn't sustainable to us. your u.s. soldiers involved in such a scale without a clear and direct interest. at that point in time we have to be more in charge of the neighbor. the sustainability is a decision. second, it was for me not to be in charge of its own defense and there is no political guarantee that does exist which is not in charge of protecting its people. if you want to push, promote and preserve the idea you want them to be in a position to protect its people. this is why it means first having european players investing much more for themselves. i decided second, working hard together on common projects, streamlining the organization and d

glad you could join us nato defense ministers are meeting their counterparts from the united states for the 1st time since president biden's inauguration the future of the alliance in afghanistan is an important point of talks over 2 days nearly 10000 troops from 36 nato nations including the united states the support of forces in the country and whether these forces can secure. is a key concern. with the taliban to trumpet ministration agreed to withdraw all u.s. troops by me. by the by. but even as that review is also discussed with nato partners levels of violence have continued to increase in. attacks often but attributed to the. taliban are on the rise of that's left particularly afghan women concerned about a future where the taliban could play an important role. aided doesn't stay long on the street she wants to get inside quickly afghanistan's best known model poses for the camera without a veil embodying the lifestyle of many of today's young afghans. the 26 year old has found fame as an influencer with more than 200000 instagram followers it's an image of the modern woman whic

coming up on the program baghdad bowen thousands more nato troops are set to be deployed in iraq delving into a decades old conflict that shows little sign of cessation we'll bring you more later in the program. deadly storms in the southern u.s. have killed at least 47 in the worst affected states texas millions are struggling to access to clean water while thousands of households have been left with out power president biden has occurred a major disaster in the area on locking funds for those worst affected during the extreme freeze energy usage has soared power bills for many texans they have skyrocketed some residents have racked up electricity costs of up to 10 $1000.00 artie's killer up and explains how the recent disaster has laid bare infrastructure problems in the country. in texas a snow storm and extreme weather conditions are leading to an avalanche of problems in addition to the power going out the water pipes froze and then cracked open leaving millions without access to running water. not out here don't. hold those who still have water now being told it is not safe to drin

nato defense ministers are holding their 1st meeting since u.s. president joe biden took office there expected to focus on dangerous missions in iraq and afghanistan says the biden administration reviews the peace deal that donald trump made with the taliban that includes withdrawing troops by may the 1st . is in paris for us but 1st let's speak to how did you castro was at the pentagon a high the president biden has always talked about multilateralism so what are we likely to see from the americans at this nato meeting. well ken we know that now there are more than twice as many nato allied troops in afghanistan as there are american troops and certainly those nato allies that are in the virtual leading now with the new u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin are looking to the u.s. to see what the next step may be given trump's sudden move to draw down the number of troops in afghanistan to 2500 now the big question of course from nato and from everyone looking at this is whether or not the u.s. will honor the peace deals commitment to remove all u.