Obama Saves NATO Governments from Summit Shame

By Matthias Gebauer (der SPIEGEL)

A call made by Barack Obama helped end the impasse. The Turkish government has given up its opposition and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen will now become the new head of NATO. By doing so, Obama saved Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy from deep embarrassment at the summit.

Delays in the agenda are part of the routine at NATO summits. When it comes to ending them, though, countries tend to be very punctual. By the last day, most are keen to return home and meetings are shortened and important issues sometimes delayed until the next summit.

On Saturday, though, the decision to be made was too important -- and the summit was forced to go into overtime. Instead of holding a joint press conference at 1 p.m. as originally planned, Secretary General Japp de Hoop Scheffer was only able to appear before journalists after a two-and-a-half hour delay. It was easy to guess what he was going to say, too, given that has successor, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, was already standing next to him.

Presidents Sarkozy and Obama with Chancellor Merkel in Strasbourg: The French and German leaders owe a debt to the new American leader.
AFP

Presidents Sarkozy and Obama with Chancellor Merkel in Strasbourg: The French and German leaders owe a debt to the new American leader.

Scheffer and Fogh Rasmussen both beamed from the stage. Scheffer said he was proud. Fogh Rasmussen congratulated his predecessor on his work. A short time later, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy also joined in. Sarkozy grinned broadly and could hardly contain his excitement. For her part, Merkel smiled a bit more reservedly.

The reactions underscored what a tour de force NATO had just undergone. By Friday evening, when Turkey repeated its threat to veto any decision to appoint Fogh Rasmussen as the next secretary general, it became clear that a NATO summit being held to celebrate its 60th anniversary threatened to end in fiasco. "

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It's nice to see the American voice serving to improve international relations rather than worsen them.