What will Donald Trump and the other leaders discuss at the Nato summit?

The meeting is about the future of the alliance and whether it can be saved, writes Jon Stone

Trump and Erdogan’s actions have threatened the bloc’s stability (Reuters)

Most of the coverage of the Nato summit in the UK is focused on Donald Trump’s visit and the effect that might have on the election, but the leaders will have business to discuss.

What are the basics?

The two-day meeting in Watford marks a special occasion: 70 years of Nato’s existence. It will be attended by the alliance’s 29 member states, including Trump, Emmanuel Macron, Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel, Justin Trudeau, and Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

What will the leaders discuss?

The biggest issue on the agenda is fitting for a 70th-anniversary meeting: the future of the alliance. Emmanuel Macron said recently that Nato was experiencing “brain death”, effectively a criticism of Trump’s reticence towards the bloc.

The US’s relationship with Nato will be up for grabs. America underwrites the vast majority of military power Nato has at its disposal, and the subject has become a political issue in the US. Trump has said other countries should pay more and threatened to withhold support if they don’t.

There is also the question of whether the alliance still holds.

In October the US withdrew troops from northeastern Syria, and Turkey, also a Nato member, took the opportunity to send in its own troops and attack Kurdish forces which had previously been fighting with the US. The move has been condemned by many countries, most notably EU ones, with Emmanuel Macron annoyed that other members were not consulted before the two members coordinated their actions. It was this that directly led to Mr Macron’s “brain death” comments.

So in a number of ways, the summit is about how to save the alliance and whether it can be made fit for the future. Whether the leaders can actually solve the issues at the meeting is, of course, a separate question.