Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, had been a front-runner to succeed Jens Stoltenberg, but failed to secure US support.
By Joe Barnes, BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT ; Nick Gutteridge, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT and Dominic Penna, POLITICAL REPORTER 6 July 2023 •
Joe Biden made Ursula von der Leyen his pick for Nato secretary general after Britain announced plans to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s without his approval.
Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, had been a front-runner to succeed Jens Stoltenberg, the transatlantic alliance’s current chief.
But Mr Wallace failed to secure the backing of the White House amid tensions over Britain’s ambitious military support for Ukraine, The Telegraph understands.
Senior Conservative MPs have urged Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, to back an alternative candidate amid fears over Mrs von der Leyen’s record as Germany’s defence minister.
During a recent visit to the White House, Mr Sunak was said to have “lobbied hard” for Mr Wallace to become Nato’s next top official.
Mr Biden later told a news conference that the UK had a “very qualified individual” for the job, but stopped short of offering his support.
Mr Wallace led the way in the campaigns to arm Kyiv with modern battle tanks and long-range cruise missiles.
However, Washington was dismayed when Britain announced plans to train Ukrainian pilots, and form an international effort to arm them with US-made F-16 jets, without its backing.
The source said the move “ended any remaining hope” the Defence Secretary had of winning over Mr Biden.
On Tuesday, Mr Sunak said Mr Wallace, who has since ruled himself out of the running to become the next Nato chief, “had been an outstanding candidate for the role”.
Robert Courts, a member of the Commons defence committee, said the UK “should back another candidate” and warned that Mrs Von der Leyen would be a “politically divisive” choice at a time when Nato needs to maintain unity.
David Jones, a former Cabinet minister, urged the Prime Minister to block the move, saying: “He should certainly not be too anxious to support. The worry is that the EU is pursuing permanent structured cooperation, which is detracting from the integrity of Nato. Von der Leyen has been a keen proponent of it.”
Mrs von der Leyen is being lined up to take over following next year’s European elections, having privately admitted that she will not be available for Nato duties until then.
Mr Stoltenberg’s mandate was extended until October 2024, which coincides with the German EU chief’s availability.
Mr Sunak vowed to build an “international coalition” to help procure F-16 aircraft for Ukraineafter a meeting with Mark Rutte, his Dutch counterpart, in May.
Downing Street announced that London and the Hague “would work to build an international coalition to provide Ukraine with combat air capabilities, supporting with everything from training to procuring F-16 jets”.
A number of European nations had already signed up to the scheme but were hesitant to make it public before securing the full support of Washington.
train Ukrainian pilots on the jets and their weapon systems.
Mr Biden is pushing for Mrs von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, to take over from Mr Stoltenberg. The president’s wife Jill reportedly leaned on him to support the appointment of the alliance’s first female secretary general.
Mark Francois, a former armed forces minister, said her appointment would play into the hands of Vladimir Putin, while Marcus Fysh, the Tory MP for Yeovil said Mrs von der Leyen was the “wrong choice” for Nato and her appointment should be “resisted”.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former business secretary, said Washington’s backing for the EU official over Mr Wallace demonstrated the “decayed state of the ‘special relationship’”.
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COMMENT
Biden wants nothing less than Britain’s total humiliation
The US President now risks weakening transatlantic security and undermining the most successful multilateral alliance of the modern era
NILE GARDINER 5 July 2023 •
President Biden has a long track record of knifing Britain in the back. He mercilessly sank a major trade deal between the United States and the United Kingdom, insultingly refused to attend the Coronation of King Charles III, and helped torpedo the candidacy of British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace to succeed Jens Stoltenberg as Nato secretary general.
And as the Telegraph reports, Biden is now backing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to be the next head of the Nato alliance. In doing so, Biden is putting up two fingers to America’s closest friend and ally Great Britain, while kowtowing to the EU.
Brexit-hating Biden’s foolhardy stance should come as no surprise. He is deeply Eurofederalist in outlook, with a long track record of currying favour with Brussels, Paris and Berlin. As vice president of the United States under Barack Obama, he famously declared before the European Parliament that Brussels could be “capital of the free world”. Under his presidency, the White House has grown noticeably closer to the European Union, Germany and France, while downgrading the “special relationship” with the United Kingdom, in stark contrast to the far more Eurosceptic approach taken by the previous Trump administration.
President Trump seemed to despise the EU, and frequently lambasted the Germans in particular for failing to live up to their defence commitments within Nato. Biden has taken a very different approach towards Germany, refusing to criticise their lacklustre approach to defence issues. It is no secret in Washington that Biden has a very Berlin-centric view of Europe, despite the fact the Germans consistently failed to carry their weight in terms of transatlantic security, openly appeased Putin’s Russia, and is a marginal player on the world stage compared to the UK.
The Biden administration has had a more complex relationship with France following the Aukus nuclear submarine deal with Australia, which mightily upset the Élysée Palace at the time. But his White House still clings to the outdated view that Europe is essentially the Brussels/Berlin/Paris axis, and that US policy towards Europe must flow through it.
In Biden’s eyes, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission President von der Leyen are the most important players in Europe, and not British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak or Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Yet it is the UK and Poland which have led Europe in standing up to the Russians over the invasion of Ukraine and have been the two most important actors alongside the United States in supporting Ukraine’s fight to defend its sovereignty.
The Biden approach is deeply misguided and counter-productive. Both Germany and France are declining forces internationally, and in the case of France facing deep internal upheaval and turmoil that threatens the very fabric of the Fifth Republic. The European Union itself is deeply troubled economically, stuck in an appeasement mindset towards both China and Russia, ravaged by internal divisions among its member states, while actively suppressing the self-determination of eastern and central European nations such as Poland and Hungary. Joe Biden not only buys into the delusions of grandeur propagated by the EU, but he actively supports them, amply demonstrated by his administration’s refusal to oppose the drive towards the creation of a European Union army that would undermine the unity of Nato.
Biden’s support for Ursula von der Leyen will be applauded by European Union elites, and cheered by both German and French officials, who strongly opposed the idea of a British secretary general. Von der Leyen’s track record as German defence minister from 2013 to 2019 was little short of humiliating and disastrous, with German troops reportedly forced to use broomsticks instead of heavy machine guns in a 2015 Nato exercise due to a staggering lack of equipment. Her tenure as head of the European Commission has been little better, with a dictatorial approach towards European member states that step out of line with EU diktats, and a shameless willingness to cut deals with Communist China.
Biden is displaying spectacularly poor judgment, and risks weakening transatlantic security and actively undermining the most successful multilateral alliance of the modern era.
Nile Gardiner is director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at The Heritage Foundation
“However, Washington was dismayed when Britain announced plans to train Ukrainian pilots, and form an international effort to arm them with US-made F-16 jets, without its backing.
The source said the move “ended any remaining hope” the Defence Secretary had of winning over Mr Biden.”
This decision cost Ukrainian lives. Ben; a military man, is as committed to Ukraine as his old boss Boris.
Von der Leyen is a leftist, failed Defence Secretary who will carry on exactly where the useless Marxist Stoltenberg left off.
Meanwhile another interminable year of Stoltenberg remains.
Nato is a big joke for the putler murder gang.
Ukraine has very few reliable friends in Europe: Poland, the Balts and Britain.
The US some good candidates for 2024: Pence, Christie and Haley. But they are very far behind the appalling leading contenders.
“In Biden’s eyes, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, and European Commission President von der Leyen are the most important players in Europe, and not British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak or Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Yet it is the UK and Poland which have led Europe in standing up to the Russians over the invasion of Ukraine and have been the two most important actors alongside the United States in supporting Ukraine’s fight to defend its sovereignty.”
That tells you all you need to know about Biden. In 1982, he was as pro-Britain as Ron Reagan and was very supportive during the Falklands conflict. Shortly after that, he decided he was Irish, because he had an IRA skank as a grandmother. The Dems then and now, were owned, bought and paid for by the so-called “American Irish.” Ironically, the last great Dem president; JFK, was an Irish Catholic who was strongly pro-Britain and bonded with then UK PM the Conservative Harold Macmillan. Biden has helped Ukraine and for that we can be greatful. But he doesn’t seem to want to help them enough to win. When others like the UK try to do something useful to level up the playing field, he pushes back.
It’s a fact that Biden was never a good politician. He was too obscure for most to take note. Now, his presidency is demonstrating this to the entire planet. And, I don’t care what the old goat has sent to Ukraine, thus far, it has always been too late and too little. His actions were always too cautious (rather cowardly). His attitude and actions are too old, too slow, too stubborn. Give him his Geritol, ice cream, and send him to the old folks home. Someone else should be POTUS … someone who is ready and willing to end this war asap, and in Ukraine’s favor.
How petulant…and how embarrassing. I guess after 2014 we shouldn’t be surprised.