The U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker attended the Doha Forum on Dec. 6, where he had an open discussion with the host, Chatham House Chief Executive Bronwen Maddox. Maddox asked him what he thought of the reaction of those reading the National Strategic Strategy who “feel that the U.S. is sounding tougher on them than it is on countries formerly regarded as enemies, like Russia?”
Whitaker defended the document’s attack on European leaders, asking whether Europe was becoming “a relic of the past and we just go to see the cathedrals and the lovely wines and cheeses and beers, and waffles in the case of Brussels.”
He added that Europe had “underspent over the last several decades, and they need to spend a lot more on their own defense, and therefore the collective defense.”
