At a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation summit in Brussels, President Trump marked the unveiling of memorials of the Berlin Wall and the September 11 attacks with a speech that, among other things, told gathered North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders their levels of defense funding are “not fair” to USA taxpayers.
“Members of the alliance must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations”, Trump said.
During a private dinner Thursday night, the 28 members, plus soon-to-join Montenegro, renewed an old pledge to move toward the 2 percent by 2024 – a move the White House touted as a sign of Trump’s influence.
“This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States, and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years”, Trump said as the other leaders watched. Some nations, though, have failed to meet that threshold. “And I am not 100 percent sure that we can say today – “we” means Mr. President and myself – that we have a common position, common opinions about Russian Federation”, said Tusk. “If NATO countries made their full and complete contributions, then NATO would be even stronger than it is today”.
JENS STOLTENBERG: It is our solidarity that keeps our nations safe.
Some of the allies – particularly Eastern European nations deeply anxious about Russian aggression – were hopeful that Trump would state a firm commitment to NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense agreement, which underpins the entire alliance. European leaders have expressed concern about the United States’ dedication to the bylaw and some had been hoping to hear support of it from Trump.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer, asked about Trump moving past Markovic, said he had not seen the video but assumed the US president was moving to his designated spot.
Last year, Trump threatened to abandon USA allies in Europe if they did not spend enough on defense, comments that were particularly unnerving for the ex-Soviet Baltic states on Russia’s border which fear Moscow might try a repeat of its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea. This came in contrast to other speakers throughout the day.
After a meeting with Trump, European Council President Donald Tusk said the leaders “discussed foreign policy, security, climate and trade relations”.
Trump tweeted Saturday, “Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should”. First and foremost, on counter-terrorism, and I am sure that I do not have to explain why.
“Some issues remain open, like climate and trade”. Rand Paul said he applauded Trump’s stance.
European Union leaders may be looking for hints from Trump about the USA trade relationship after the president kicked off plans to renegotiate the NAFTA agreement with Canada and Mexico. “The greatest task today is the consolidation of the whole free world around those values, and not just interests”.
But EU officials were pleased he was fitting in the visit at all and noted that his critical tone had changed after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Washington and after sending U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to Europe this year.
Trump on the campaign trail made restoring relations with Russian Federation a key promise but he has faced bitter opposition in Washington and has since become embroiled in a scandal over alleged links to Moscow. During his campaign, Trump said he would cancel the climate agreement and stop all US payments to United Nations global warming programs.
