this is the w.'s line from berlin president trump offers warm words to nato on its seventieth anniversary he meets with secretary general again stoltenberg in washington andrine uses attack on germany's defense spending. i'm so gail welcome to the program the west's oldest and largest military alliance marks its seventy found a verse for today the north atlantic treaty which brought nato into being was

signed on the fourth of april nine hundred forty nine during the cold war the organization was formed to protect your from the soviet union and warsaw pact countries in the thirty years since the fall of the berlin wall and the cold war division of europe and nato has been redefining itself and u.s. president donald trump has likely been pressuring alliance members especially germany to increase their military spending. you know now proceed to the signing of the north atlantic treaty this seventy year old nato has faced examinations under harsh light this birthday it does have some concerns for its well being discomfort when something viral is going around occasional spikes in blood pressure should never been allowed to happen but germany is totally controlled by russia and perhaps some self doubt that when push comes to shove its core is not as strong as it hoped to former u.s.

ambassadors to nato research the biggest threat facing the alliance is seventy the transatlantic consensus the absence of strong american presidential leadership nato secretary general young stills and rejects that conclusion it's just not possible to say that the united states is not committed to meet them because they're not the states is increasing their military contributions to nato he points to the latest example a new plan for the us to forward position heavy war fighting equipment at a police airbase that's jamie shea spent almost four decades at nato as a spokesman but also an expert in what are called emerging security challenges and while dealing with russia and its hybrid worker tactics still top the list of challenges for nato the now retired share warns the alliance must look further afield to be fit for the future because obviously china is the rising power it's already in europe of buying up infrastructure influencing the future of all to

officially televisions technology it's going to be a massively more important factor in determining twenty first century security to russia or all googly any other country outside nature of that country's insider shaping nato's future to the next enlargement will be to north macedonia which changed its name to settle a dispute with greece that earned an almost immediate invitation to join pending the approval of the other twenty nine allies. they didn't waste their time they didn't drag their feet and that's remarkable for an organization of twenty nine members so i think that eats not just our desire to join it's how nato has dealt with the challenge of enlargement that shows that this is a strong forward looking and dynamic organization scope hopes the alliance will prove this anniversary year seventy is the new thirty. nato

secretary general and stoltenberg is due to give a speech in this hour we will cover that live ahead of that let's talk about the states a feel going to zation with a mock up of a house is an analyst on transatlantic fast from the german institute for international and security affairs here in berlin and also with the washing cars correspondent all of a silence there is outside the u.s. congress are welcome both let's start with you mark over house how would you sum up the nature of the condition of this it's seventy thousand of us are well there are supposed to be a party going on because it's the seventy fifth anniversary of nato but there doesn't seem to be really the mood for party brussels or in washington and many other national capitals because i think that nato has a lot of internal and external challenges at the moment really in an unprecedented way there's the issue of trump there's rising tide of nationalism in many nato countries and some nato countries there is a rising tensions with with russia crumbling arms control agreements so there's

really a lot on the plate a lot of challenges so that's that's bad news good news is that nato is still around and that the countries are still coming together to tackle these challenges all of us in washington clearly the president has a base with nato how is the organization viewed by the administration. well it's an ambivalent view that we're hearing her of course we have donald trump and he called natal obsolete to two years ago the year later at the summit in brussels he said germany is a captive of russia so we had all kinds of inflammatory rhetoric by the u.s. president raising certainly doubts about the future and the necessity of nato but then on the other hand what we are going to what we are expecting right now is an address to congress by the secretary general of nato. and that is a very rare move you just have to consider congress is divided into the house and the senate which is controlled by the democrats and the republican and they've both

agreed on having the nato secretary general speaking here for the first time in history actually that secretary general of nato addresses those chambers off kong resits a bipartisan move and that simply shows in signals that both chambers are supportive of nato as such as other branches of the government are also congress passed legislation basically avoiding and preventing trying to pull out of nato should that happen in an extreme case so we do see an ambivalent view but the signal coming from washington today is america stands behind nato. thank you thank you i will come back to you both once we've heard from. he addresses this joint meeting of both chambers of the u.s. congress. let's have a look now at some of the other stories making news around the world the e.u. has launched a fresh action against poland over its controversial judicial reforms european

commission has found that under the new system judges can be punished simply for acting independently also is already subject to unprecedented rule of law proceedings that could see poland lose its e.u. voting rights. before prime minister of malaysia has gone on trial for his alleged role in a massive corruption scandal that sack using queues is accused of misappropriating for half a billion dollars from a state development fund if convicted the sixty five year old could face life in prison. votes in eight districts of a stamp of being recounted after the president's rhetoric time earlier ones a k party challenge sunday's local election results the move comes after very capably he was defeated by the opposition c.h.p. in the initial count the c.h.p. has criticised the appeal accusing me and came here trying to steal the will of the people. celebrations erupted across algeria last night as

president abdullah sees beautifully announce his resignation which has not been officially confirmed by the country's constitutional council algerians have held that weeks of mass demonstrations demanding that the ailing eighty two year old step down. a british prime minister to resign may has been holding talks with opposition labor leader jeremy corbett in a new push for a compromise on bread said mrs manston tuesday that she would ask the e.u. for another delay beyond the new april twelfth deadline to avoid crashing out of the block without a deal talks with labor have anger directed hardliners in her conservative party they fear a compromise could lead to mutate seeking closer economic ties once it leaves the e.u. . weak. talks with germany when asked phil underway so could they break the back seat deadlock we put that question to our london correspondent birkett mass. they might break the deadlock but also it's not going to be easy

we're reminded in private is this question when it's reason i had to our answer to interventions of m.p.'s here in the parliament and someone from our own party from the conservative party has asked the. question whether it's what's worse no deal britain crashing out of the european union without a deal or and i quote a marxist and you see my led government she was referring to the labor party reason why it's going to speak to so and also i was speaking to a labor m.p. earlier today and he was worried that to reason may's offer was just a trap that she was using labor to get her to do you through in the end but she wouldn't maybe stick to all the promises that she could make to jeremy corbyn in the course of these negotiations so lots of worries though we do also have to assume that both leaders want to want to prevent

a nodia brags that they don't want a scenario where there are no plans for the future and where there are possible food shortages and chaos at the border we have to assume that they are going to try to work together. get much reporting from london an independent inquiry into child sexual abuse in former east germany has called for an end to to booze around subject so that people who are traumatized as children can heal i don't talk after three years' work the inquiry has published an interim report based on testimony from almost seventeen hundred people the chair warned that there is more work to be done disabled children do you think competitive sports is yet to be investigated the next report tells the story of one survivor. corrina tellheim returns to the scene of the crime every day in one thousand nine hundred four she spent nearly six months in a closed juvenile home in talk oh well east german youth was severely abused physically and sexually today she works here supporting other survivors who are

trying to process what happened to them. in the beginning it was difficult as for me i'd somewhat moved on when i got a key to the building. now i have the power now i can close the door when i want and i can also open it when i want to and i can go out and i'm not locked in my i'm just free to come out and been i've been invited five today the talk out juvenile home is a memorial in communist east germany children regarded as rebellious or stubborn were locked up here even after german reunification many find it hard to believe that anyone was tortured and degraded at the home with her in a towel hi i was sexually abused. my into. my perpetrator was the director of the juvenile homes in my opinion his physique prevented him from performing sexual acts. but instead he had them performed on him.

capitol hill. secretary general stoltenberg is addressing both houses of congress. thank

. you thank you congress i have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you his excellency jens stoltenberg the secretary general of the north atlantic treaty organization. wow. wow. wow.

wow . madam speaker mr vice president all are all numbers so do not the states congress ladies and gentlemen i am really truly only ungrateful for the privilege of addressing you all today and to represent the twenty nine members of the nato alliance seventy years ago tomorrow nato is founding treaty was signed in this great city and they preston truman said we hope to create a shield against aggression and the fear of aggression a bulwark which will permit those to get on with the real business of government and society the business of achieving

a fuller and happier life for all our citizens i. our alliance was created by people who have who had lived through two devastating world wars they knew only too well the horror or the suffering and human and material cost of war they were determined that this should never happen again and they were also determined to stand up to the expansion of the soviet union we. wanted

. we should all stake in control over its neighbors crushing democracy this and the pressing their people so they founded nato. with a clear purpose to preserve peace and to safeguard freedom and with an iron clad commitment by all members of the of the alliance to protect the children they made a solemn promise one for all and all for want. of thanks this commitment has served us well ps task in pursuit and freedom maintained yes allies have been involved in conflicts in

different parts of the world and allies have suffered the pain of terrorist attacks but no nato ally has been attacked by another country the cold war ended with out a shot being fired in europe and we have experienced an unprecedented period of peace so the nato alliance is not only the longest lost in alliance in history it is the most successful alliance of these thank you. ever since the founding of our treaty or alliance in nineteen forty nine every congress every american president your men and women in uniform and the people of the knighted states of america have been

staunch supporters all night and america has been the backbone of our alliance it has been for the mental to european security and for our freedom. we would not have the peaceful and prosperous europe we see today with out the sacrifice and the commitment of the united states for your enduring support i thank you today thank you. so nato has been good for europe but nato has also been good for the united states to us the strength of a nation is not only measured by the site the size of its

economy or the number of its soldiers but but also bar the number of its friends and through nato the united states has more friends and allies than any of the power this has made the united states stronger safer and more sicker mother speaking mr vice president it is good to have friends thank you. yes they flew over the atlantic i looked out all my window at the ocean below the great ocean that lies between our two continents get plant thick does not divide us it unites us it binds us together. and for the we like me the atlantic ocean defines who we

are indeed it was a norseman leif erikson. thank you all still first european to reach american shores. thank you almost a thousand years ago. if more people would know if you hadn't left so quickly on the side to not to tell anyone about it. for adventures like leave exeunt get land think ocean was never a barrier rall that it was a great blue bridge to new lance and new possibilities for millions of europeans it does been a bridge to freedom sanctuary and hope. my

grandparents were among them my mother was born in part this isn't new just. thank you thank you thank you i and i lived apart on my childhood in some francisco. thank you. so this has given me a sense of kinship with this wonderful country a kinship that has only grown throughout my life. for instance i remember well during the cold war when i was a conscript in the region army our forces were trained and equipped to hold the line. but we knew that we could not take on the might of the soviet union

alone and norway's actually bordering the soviet union was supporting so do new cold war but you also knew that we were not alone. we knew that if needed our nato allies led by the united states would soon be there with us we enjoyed a level of security that only our trance atlantic alliance could provide so thanks to nato as a young man during the cold war i felt safe and that says something about the strength of our audience madam speaker mr vice president members of congress at the entrance to the nato headquarters in belgium there are two monuments one a piece of the berlin wall designed to keep people in and ideas out it's faint it failed of the

thanks . it's fairly because the ideals and the values odo's have built it were less compelling and less powerful than ours because we as nato were salutes we stood together and would not back down the other monument is a twisted steel beam from the north tower or the world trade center emma morial to the ordinary people going about their business on an ordinary day when the unthinkable happened. a memorial to the two thousand nine hundred

seventy seven people who lost their lives on nine eleven a reminder of how all nato allies stood with united states in its hour of need. and one thousand. one moment is a symbol of freedom the older a symbol of solidarity both are symbols of make them who we are and what we stand for. what so many of our brave men and women have fought for and sometimes died for but not in vain and not alone the men and women all our own

forces have served together over decades this includes actually also many of you in this room in this congress in my delegation and i paid tribute to you and to all those who serve in the defense of freedom. and. there is no higher cost on freedom and indeed these two moments we see the challenges we have overcome as the alliance we deterred the soviet union during the cold war stopped wars on atrocities in the balkans fought terrorism from afghanistan to the middle east welcomed a new free nations of central and eastern europe into our alliance helping to spread democracy peace and prosperity. and they will store remains open this

year the republic of north must i don't know signed the accession protocol i would your support was and with your support north most of all now will soon become the thirty five member all of our alliance so what started in one thousand forty nine with twelve members has proven a powerful force for peace and alliance that strive to join showing the historic suspects of nato. but as you all know success in the past is not a guarantee of success in the future and we have to be frank questions aren't being asked on both sides of the land think about the strength or partnership

and yes there are differences we are in the alliance of many different nations with different geography history on political parties republicans and democrats conservatives and labor independents greens and many more this is democracy open discussions and different views is not a sign of weakness it is a sign of strength thanks so we we should not be surprised when we see the differences between our countries

today there are disagreements on issues such as trade. and they're doing climate change and they're all nuclear deal these are serious issues with serious disagreements but we should remember that the other hand over to our disagreements also before this serious crisis in one thousand fifty six the french withdraw from military operation nato in one thousand sixty six or the iraq war in two thousand and three which was strongly supported by so marlise and equally strongly oppose spoiled us the strength of nato is that the spite our differences we have always been able to unite around our core task to defend the children protected shoulder and to keep our people safe. of the

n.t. . we have overcome our disagreements in the past and we must overcome our differences now because we will need our alliance even more in the future we face unprecedented challenges challenges no one nation can face alone the global balance of power is shifting the fight against terrorism is a generational fight. we are only just seen the beginning of the threats in cyber space artificial intelligence quantum computing and big data could change the nature of the conflict more fundamentally than the industrial revolution

and we will need to continue to deal with a more assertive russia in twenty fourteen russia illegally and next come yet. the first time in europe that one contract taken part of the by force since world war two and we see a pattern of russian behavior including a massive military buildup from the arctic to the mediterranean and from the black sea to the baltic the use of military grade nerve agent in the uk we kingdom support for ourselves murderous regime in syria consistent cyber attacks on nato allies and partners targeting everything from paul.