Trump scolds NATO on spending, terror

‘Allies to join anti-IS coalition’

BRUSSELS, May 25, (Agencies): US President Donald Trump on Thursday berated NATO allies for not doing enough on terrorism and spending, while stopping short of the public commitment to collective defence they had hoped for.

Trump’s broadside at fellow leaders during his first NATO summit came as he unveiled a 9/11 memorial at the alliance’s new $1.2 billion headquarters in Brussels which is meant to highlight allied unity and purpose.

Trump said the bombing in the British city of Manchester on Monday, claimed by the Islamic State group, showed that “terrorism must be stopped in its tracks.”

“The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration as well as threats from Russia and NATO’s eastern and southern borders,” the president said.

Trump denounced allies for not paying their fair share, saying that even if they met a commitment to allocate two percent of GDP to defence, it would still not be enough to meet the challenges.

“Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they’re supposed to be paying for their defence,” the president said.

“This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. Many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years,” repeating a charge he had raised constantly on the campaign trail.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel struck an entirely different note as she unveiled a memorial made up of a section of the Berlin Wall to mark the end of the Cold War.

“Germany will not forget the contribution NATO made in order to reunify our country. This is why we will indeed make our contribution to security and solidarity in the common alliance,” she said.

The surprising mention of immigration was in line with one of Trump’s key election promises to build a wall to keep out immigrants crossing into the United States from Mexico, a plan widely derided in Europe.

20 million people across Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen are at risk. The UN has described the situation as the biggest humanitarian crisis in its history, but donor funding is falling far short.

It appealed earlier this month for $4.4 billion, but said less than a third had been raised.

“As he (Trump) relayed at the Vatican, the United States is proud to announce more than $300 million in anti-famine spending” for the area, a White House statement said. (AFP)

Despite

Trump’s harsh words came despite NATO saying it would formally endorse joining the US-led coalition against IS at the summit, in the face of reservations in France and Germany about getting involved in another conflict.

Shortly before his address, Trump had ran into his first problems of a landmark European trip, embarrassingly called out in public over Russia and on leaks from the probe into the Manchester terror attack.

Trump announced a review of the “deeply troubling” leaks and warned that those responsible could face prosecution, the White House said.

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May said meanwhile she would raise directly with Trump the issue of leaks from a probe into the Manchester terror attack that have left British authorities infuriated with their US counterparts.

Arriving at NATO, May said she would “make clear to President Trump that intelligence which is shared between our law enforcement agencies must remain secure.”

Trump’s carefully choreographed visits to the EU and NATO in Brussels had been designed to heal divisions caused by the billionaire’s harsh campaign criticisms of both institutions on the campaign trail.

He called NATO “obsolete” and praised Britain’s Brexit vote

‘What US can do to help’:

Ivanka Trump met Wednesday with a group of African women in Rome who were trafficked into prostitution rings, a private encounter said to have moved her to tears.

Trump visited the Rome headquarters of the Sant’Egidio Community, a Catholic humanitarian organization that serves the poor, the elderly and migrants, after a morning visit to the Vatican.

Sant’Egidio official Daniela Pompei said the closed-door encounter lasted 40 minutes and Trump asked the 10 African to leave the EU.

But differences immediately emerged after his talks with the European Union’s top officials Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker on climate change, trade, and above all Russia.

“I’m not 100 percent sure that we can say today — ‘we’ means Mr President and myself — that we have a common position, common opinion about Russia,” former Polish prime minister Tusk said.

Trump on the campaign trail made restoring relations with Russia a key promise but he has faced bitter opposition in Washington and has since become embroiled in a scandal over alleged links to Moscow.

Promoted

Tusk also called for “Western values” to be promoted, challenging former tycoon Trump’s world view that self-interested deals best settle international problems.

Trump came to Brussels direct from a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, after visiting Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

On his arrival on Wednesday in Brussels, the city he once said had been turned into a “hellhole” by Muslim immigration, the president was greeted by around 9,000 protesters saying “Trump not welcome.”

Meanwhile, NATO’s chief affirmed Thursday that the alliance will join the international coalition fighting the Islamic State group but will not wage direct war against the extremists — an announcement timed for US President Donald Trump’s first appearance at a summit of the alliance’s leaders.

In the wake of this week’s suicide bomb attack at a concert in Manchester, NATO leaders are keen to show that the alliance born in the Cold War is responding to today’s security threats as they meet in Brussels. Trump has questioned its relevance and pushed members to do more to defend themselves.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that joining the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition “will send a strong political message of NATO’s commitment to the fight against terrorism and also improve our coordination within the coalition.”

But he underlined that “it does not mean that NATO will engage in combat operations.”

All 28 NATO allies are individual members of the 68-nation anti-IS coalition. But some, notably France and Germany, have feared that NATO officially joining it might upset decision-making within the coalition or alienate Middle East countries taking part. Stoltenberg said that joining would send a strong political signal. As part of its efforts to respond to Trump’s demand to do more to fight terrorism, NATO will also set up a counter-terrorism intelligence cell to improve information-sharing.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and his NATO counterparts on Thursday inaugurated the alliance’s new headquarters in Belgium, a sprawling 1.1-billion-euro ($1.2-billion) complex expected to be fully up and running early next year.

The low-slung, gray glass and steel behemoth near the Brussels airport will be the base for some 4,500 people, although none will live there. It’s an edifice with few frills, but can resist bomb or cyber-attacks, withstand power outages and even recycle rainwater.

Standing seven stories high, and with one level underground, the building is covered with 10 soccer fields’ worth of glass. A stroll across the 41-hectare (101-acre) campus should take about 20 minutes.

women for suggestions on what the US government, led by her father, President Donald Trump, can do to help others like them.

Trump, who serves as adviser to her father, “listened very carefully to all the stories, but she also asked some questions,” Pompei said after their guest had departed. Trump and others who heard the accounts “were moved to tears.”

“She asked what could be done on a government and legislative level, but also what could be done to stop human trafficking, especially of women,” Pompei MADRID, May 25, (AP): Spain’s defense ministry says a navy frigate has rescued 282 migrants from two boats found adrift in waters off the Libyan coast.

A ministry statement says the migrants rescued Wednesday included 18 Eritrean children under 10 years old. They were sailing in a small rubber boat and a larger wooden one.

said. (AP)

EU stresses human rights:

EU Council President Donald Tusk on Thursday stressed the importance of human rights in talks with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, amid tensions over Ankara’s longdelayed EU accession process.

Tusk, who heads the European Council of 28 EU member state leaders, and European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker met the Turkish president ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels.

“I put the question of human rights in the centre of our discussions,” Tusk tweeted after the talks, which began with a brief and cordial handshake for photographers.

A spokesman for Juncker said: “The EU and Turkey must and will continue to cooperate. Major issues of common interest were discussed in detail in a good and constructive atmosphere.”

At another meeting on the margins of the NATO summit, Erdogan promised French President Emmanuel Macron he would “rapidly” look into the case of jailed French photojournalist Mathias Depardon, Macron’s office said.

According to the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Depardon, who has been held in Turkey for over two weeks, has begun a hunger strike. (AFP)