Hidden underneath this week’s NATO negotiations lies a pipeline that delivers more than 50 billion cubic meters of crude oil from Russia to Germany annually. A similar pipeline runs into France, Italy, Spain, and the Nordic countries, among others. Last year, more than half of Germany’s gas came from Russia, to the tune of $10 billion paid to Gazprom – a Kremlin-owned energy company.
This explains much of what happened above ground. NATO is predicated on the agreement that members will protect each other from Russia. That’s all but impossible if their economies are dependent on … Russia. When Trump calls Germany a “captive” of Russia, he’s not being friendly – but he’s not wrong.
If you believe that Trump has nothing but bad intentions and is the real Russian lapdog here, consider this: If you are mad at Russia for meddling in our election, you are compelled to stop the Europeans from funding it. Russian oil funds land at the Kremlin, and then pour into Iran, Syria, and election meddling. This isn’t a complicated international chess game, it’s connect-the-dots.
Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, and Italy are also some of Russia’s best customers. France is comparatively less dependent on Russian energy, but still purchases billions’ worth each year. Turkey, another NATO member, lags behind only Germany in consumption of Russian gas. The U.S. imports Russian oil, too, but we certainly don’t depend on it: less than 4 percent of our petroleum imports come from Russia.
Much has been made of the photo of the NATO heads of state in which Trump looks left and everyone else looks right. He’s not the one looking at Russia; they are. We don’t need Russian fossil fuels; they do.
There is more to Trump’s anger than his brash communication style. At NATO, he’s calling out hypocrisy that has run unchecked for decades: While our allies fund Russia by buying their energy resources, we’re paying billions of dollars to protect these same countries from Russia. The United States spends 3.6 percent of our GDP on defense. The next-highest contributor is Greece, which spends 2.4 percent of their annual output on defense.
Former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both tried to fix this. Elisabeth Braw, an adjunct fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, put it clearly to CNN: “Lots of American presidents and administrations have made that point and pleaded with allies to increase spending. They just did it more politely.” If politeness had worked either at home or abroad, there would be no President Trump.
Only Estonia, Greece, Poland, the U.K., and of course the U.S. spend more than the benchmark 2 percent of GDP on defense. Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and more are getting their national defense subsidized by American taxpayers.
To even out this inequity, one of two things must happen: our NATO allies start paying their fair share to NATO, or they pay the United States another way.
Europe does not need to depend on Russian oil. In January 2016, American energy companies began exporting crude oil for the first time after the repeal of a 40-year ban. America has more oil reserves than both Saudi Arabia and Russia, and yet, only in the past few years have we been able to export it. A pro-carbon president means more domestic drilling, which means less foreign dependence. The merits of fossil fuels are hotly contested (pun intended), but the fact remains: Europe is going to use oil. It might as well buy it from us instead of from an enemy. The largest holders of natural gas are, in order, Russia, Iran, Qatar, and the U.S. Where do you want NATO to go energy shopping?
Instead, our NATO allies continue to send billions to Russia in exchange for fossil fuels they could just as easily buy from us. Perhaps NATO as a whole would need less funding if Russia wasn’t so well-funded – by NATO members who are buying its fossil fuels. Russia will continue to get away with murder (the literal murder of the MH17 passengers, for instance) as long as NATO countries depend so heavily on its exports.
Nothing illustrates this better than the aftermath of Russia’s poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a former spy now living in the United Kingdom. Germany expelled four Russian diplomats in early April, and less than 24 hours later granted Russia approval to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in German waters. The pipeline will double the amount of oil Russia can export to Germany. Russia’s diplomatic corps is laughing all the way to the bank.
Our defense allies not only refuse to carry their weight in NATO, they actively fund NATO’s largest opponent. Trump didn’t go to Europe to charm his counterparts abroad. He went to make them pay up.
Angela Morabito (@AngelaLMorabito) writes about politics, media, ethics, and culture. She holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Georgetown University.
