US backs NATO mutual defense
‘Europe can no longer outsource protection’
WASHINGTON, June 10, (Agencies): US President Donald Trump said Friday that the United States remained committed to NATO’s mutual defense pledge, after he failed to endorse it in a speech in Brussels last month.
Amid worries by Washington’s European partners that the US leader had not fully bought into the Atlantic alliance, Trump told reporters: “I’m committing the United States to Article Five. Certainly we are there to protect.”
“That’s one of the reasons that I want people to make sure we have a very, very strong force, by paying the kinds of money necessary to have that force,” Trump told a joint press conference with visiting Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
The US president stunned Europe’s leaders at a summit in Brussels on May 25 when he failed to publicly back the now 29-member bloc’s founding mutual defense guarantee.
Instead he castigated the allies for failing to pay their way with contributions to NATO forces, singling out especially Germany.
According to Politico, Trump’s defense and security advisors included in his prepared speech a clear endorsement of the mutual defense pledge, but Trump himself struck it out just before speaking.
Doubts have remained since then, despite US diplomats and military leaders themselves restating the pledge.
Just days before his January 20 inauguration, Trump rocked the postWorld War II western alliance by calling NATO “obsolete.”
Article Five has been the core of the NATO treaty’s strength since it was formed amid a budding Cold War with communist states -- particularly the Soviet Union -- in 1949.
It has only been invoked once -- in support of the United States, after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
On Thursday, Democrats on the House Armed Services Committee had called on Trump to declare his support for Article Five.
Trump’s pledge on Friday came shortly before the White House announced that he would travel to NATO ally Poland ahead of the Group of 20 summit in early July.
“The visit will reaffirm America’s steadfast commitment to one of our closest European allies and emphasize the administration’s priority of strengthening NATO’s collective defense,” the White House said.
Speaking beside Iohannis, Trump suggested his pressure on other NATO members had had an effect.
“As you know, I have been an advocate for strengthening our NATO alliance through greater responsibility and burden sharing among member nations,” he said.
“Because of our actions, money is starting to pour in to NATO .... Other countries are starting to realize that it’s time to pay up. And they’re doing that. Very proud of that fact.”
“Because together we can confront the common security challenges facing the world,” he added.
Trump praised Iohannis for boosting his country’s defense spending. Romania joined the NATO alliance in 2004.
“We hope our other NATO allies will follow Romania’s lead,” Trump said.
Iohannis
said NATO’s
mutual defense commitment was a crucial part of a defense against an aggressive Russia.
“In my opinion, we have to be very clear, very simple, very straightforward if we talk about Russia, and with Russia,” he said.
PRAGUE:
Europe has to take care of its defence given the shift in US policy, European Commission chief JeanClaude Juncker said Friday, promoting a hefty defence fund announced by Brussels.
“The protection of Europe can no longer be outsourced,” Juncker told a defence conference in Prague.
“Over the past decade, it has become crystal clear that our American partners consider that they are shouldering too much of the burden for their wealthy European allies,” he said.
On Wednesday, the EU unveiled an unprecedented plan to set up a 5.5-billion-euro ($6.15-billion) a year fund, following a Franco-German led bid to focus on security and defence to provide a new sense of purpose after last year’s Brexit vote shook Europe.
BERLIN:
Also:
Germany and France are working out specific proposals for a European Union defence fund ahead of a bilateral ministerial meeting on July 13, German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in an interview published on Saturday.
Joint work on drones, military transports and combined efforts to stabilise the African Sahel region were projects that could be funded by the new plan, she told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain.