Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said: “What would be a really nice surprise is if he actually were congenial and also cooperative” in his talks with NATO leaders. | Raad Adayleh/AP Photo Ex-diplomats caution — and credit — Trump before NATO, Putin meetings

Madeleine Albright and 15 other former foreign ministers from around the world are urging President Donald Trump to shore up America’s “deteriorating relationship” with its Western allies, while warning him that it would be a “grave mistake” to ignore the threat posed by Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

But, in a letter sent to Trump on Monday, the diplomatic veterans also praise the president, saying, for example, that he should “take some credit” for spurring other NATO states to boost defense spending.


The former foreign ministers — who hail from countries such as Britain, New Zealand and Bulgaria — offered their views just ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Brussels and Trump’s July 16 summit with the Russian president in Helsinki.

The letter’s mere existence underscores the depth of trans-Atlantic anxiety over Trump, who has belittled America’s European allies even as he seeks the favor of Putin at a time when Russia is menacing its Western neighbors.

The mood in Europe is one of “both fear and confusion,” Albright, secretary of state during the Clinton administration, told POLITICO. “It’s been a very, very long time that I have seen such concern about what is going on and trying to read where the United States is.”

The worries are particularly acute, Albright said, because of Trump’s behavior during last month’s G-7 summit, where he belittled the leaders of such key U.S. allies as Canada and Germany. Trump followed that meeting with a summit with North Korea’s brutal dictator, Kim Jong Un, whom he showered in praise.

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NATO leaders fear a repeat in the next two weeks, with Trump bashing them while cozying up to Putin.

“What would be a really nice surprise is if he actually were congenial and also cooperative” in his talks with NATO leaders, Albright said.

Albright and the other former foreign ministers who signed Monday’s letter – among them Britain’s David Miliband and Germany’s Joschka Fischer – tried to strike a balance in acknowledging Trump’s more valid criticisms while cajoling him to admit there’s been progress related to them.

Trump has long complained the U.S. shoulders too much of the financial burden for NATO, a post-World War II military alliance credited with unifying the West and defending it against the Soviet Union, and more recently post-Soviet Russia.

Trump’s complaint isn’t new – a series of Republican and Democratic presidents have complained that most NATO members don’t meet an agreed goal of devoting at least 2 percent of their GDP to defense.

The former diplomats conceded that the U.S. spends disproportionately more on defense, but noted that all NATO members are now increasing their defense spending in real terms. About half have a plan to meet the 2 percent benchmark by 2024.

“This week’s NATO Summit in Brussels is an opportunity for you to highlight this progress and take some credit for spurring European countries to spend more on defense,” the former foreign ministers tell Trump.

Unmentioned is the fact that much of the increased spending now can be tied to pledges made in 2014, before Trump.

In a pair of Monday tweets, Trump acknowledged that NATO members are upping their military spending but insisted “they must do much more.” “NATO benefits Europe far more than it does the U.S.” Trump asserted.

Trump has also been cagey about whether he believes in the NATO principle of collective defense – the notion that an attack on one NATO member will be viewed as an attack on all 29 of them. But at other times he has praised the alliance and said he is fully committed to it.

The contradictory messages are deeply frustrating to European leaders who are unaccustomed to having bedrock principles questioned.

“They really do not understand what Trump wants,” Albright said.

The letter’s 16 signatories also acknowledge that U.S.-Russian cooperation could be valuable on some issues, including Syria’s civil war.

“But an improved relationship with Russia is a means to achieving broader strategic objectives, and not an end in itself,” they go on to write. “As your administration’s national security strategy makes clear, Russia is engaged in an effort to weaken U.S. influence and divide it from its allies in Europe.”

“Russia’s actions in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law. Its interference in elections around the world has undermined confidence in democracy,” they add. “To ignore or accept these actions would be a grave mistake, inviting further aggression and instability.”

Asked why the letter made a point of flattering Trump on NATO spending, Albright replied: “We’re all diplomats… It reflected how people felt without being derogatory and eliciting a derogatory response.”

Albright recently released a book titled “Fascism: A Warning,” that decries the rise of authoritarianism and criticizes Trump over his apparent fondness for autocrats. She’s particularly wary of Putin, who seems to be delighting in the rift between the U.S. and Europe.

“Having dealt with him, he is very smart and very disciplined,” Albright said of the Russian leader. “President Trump has to be very careful because he is dealing with a former KGB officer who has played a weak hand very, very well.”