NATO dispatches, US attacks Iran, Le Pen returns

Hello, this is Leonie Kidd from London.

Welcome to the Daily Open Newsletter. In this special edition, we hear from CNBC presenter Steve Sedgwick in Ankara, Turkey, about the contentious NATO summit.

ANKARA, Turkey — So how did NATO European leaders behave on the first day of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, also known as Operation “Get Donald Trump on Your Side”?

Well, multi-billion dollar contracts have been announced with some of the world’s biggest military contractors, which isn’t bad in terms of showing off how much money Europe is spending on its own defense.

Indeed, Tuesday might have been a meaningful day for Europe if the meeting had simply been to prove to the United States that the plan exists and is being implemented, that the 5%-of-GDP spending pledge is not a distant mirage and that real efforts are underway to get there.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the so-called “Trump whisperer”, was once again at the forefront of the proceedings, praising progress in “shifting the burden” of European defense across the Atlantic.

Still, as the great European military tactician Helmut von Moltke said over 100 years ago, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy” (I prefer this version to Mike Tyson’s “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” alternative).

I’m not saying that President Donald Trump is the enemy here, but he is certainly a major challenge to European leaders trying to keep NATO together.

The problem is that while Rutte and others are trying to exclude Trump on spending, the US president brought up another old talking point on his arrival and during a press conference with host Turkish President Recep Erdoğan: that he believes the US should still manage Greenland.

Greenland again! Europe’s leaders must have thought they had been put to sleep once at Davos in January, and now it’s back again. Who saw that coming? mark? Ursula? Friedrich? Emmanuel?…No, I thought not.

Anyone up for a game of whack-a-mole?

— Steve Sedgwick

The flow of NATO news continues, with President Trump making one of the boldest threats ever to a European ally: “We can remove all our soldiers from Europe.” His comments at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit came after he renewed his call for the United States to acquire Greenland, saying, “Greenland should be administered by the United States, not Denmark.”

Ukraine is also at the top of NATO’s agenda amid a new wave of attacks between Kiev and Moscow. Finland’s President Alexander Stubbe said in an interview with CNBC that Ukraine has already won a victory by remaining sovereign for more than four years, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said “time is not on Russia’s side right now.”

Oil prices rose in early trading after the US launched a number of “strong strikes” against Iran. The US military announced it had taken action against Tehran after a number of commercial ships were attacked by Iranian missiles in the Strait of Hormuz.

The U.S. Treasury also revoked its license to sell Iranian oil in the wake of the attack.

“Iran can only benefit if it behaves well,” a U.S. official told CNBC on condition of anonymity. “Iran’s actions in the Straits are completely unacceptable to the United States and will have consequences.”

U.S. and European futures were little changed in early trading as investors assessed developments. Stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region are trading negatively overall.

In the UK, right-wing politician Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK Party, plans to resign from parliament and hold a special election to pit the party against the establishment. But rival parties including Labor, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have said they cannot field candidates to challenge him, meaning his gamble may not pay off and his victory could be seen as meaningless.

— Leonie Kidd

Chrysler parent company Stellantis announced Tuesday that it has started taking orders for the Fiat Topolino small electric vehicle in the United States starting at $13,995.

Although the Topolino resembles a small car such as a Fiat 500, it is actually a four-wheeled vehicle that functions like a golf cart.

Stellantis said the Topolino can travel up to 19 miles per hour and has an electric range of up to 76 miles. The transatlantic automaker says its low-speed vehicle conversion kit increases the top speed to 25 mph, making it roadworthy on roads with speed limits of 35 mph or less.

– Michael Weiland