Trump backs NATO allies ahead of G20

US president warns future of West at risk during visit to Poland

US President Donald Trump pledged his backing for NATO at the start of a high- stakes visit to Europe on Thursday as he warned that the future of the West was at risk.

In key US ally Poland on the first leg of the trip, he also accused Russia of “destabilizing” action and warned North Korea it faced “consequences” after an intercontinental ballistic missile test that has alarmed the international community.

On the eve of what is likely to be a prickly G20 summit, with Trump facing animosity from traditional US allies, he used his keynote address in Warsaw to warn that a lack of collective resolve could doom an alliance that endured through the Cold War.

“The defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail,” he said. “The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.”

Seeking to ease allies’ concerns about the US commitment to NATO, Trump endorsed its one- for- all- and- all- for- one mutual defense pact.

“The US has demonstrated not merely with words, but with actions, that we stand firmly behind Article Five ,” he said, while calling for more defense spending on the eastern side of the Atlantic. “The transatlantic bond between the US and Europe is as strong as ever, and maybe in many ways, even stronger.”

Just a day before he meets Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20, Trump off ered rare criticism of Russia’s “destabilizing” behavior.

He also said Moscow “may have” tried to infl uence the 2016 election that brought him to power, but suggested others too may have been involved.

The White House wanted to use Trump’s Warsaw speech – with its echoes of historic Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy’s addresses overseas – to burnish his credentials as a global statesman and defl ect suggestions he is making the US a virtual pariah.

Speaking at Krasinski Square – which memorializes the Warsaw uprising against Nazi occupation – Trump pointed to Poland as an example of resolve in the defense of Western traditions.

Around 10,000 people turned out to see him, many arriving on free buses laid on by Poland’s conservative ruling party, which was eager to ensure Trump got the adulation he craves.