Trump: US will never stop fighting terror

NATO TO JOIN ANTI-DAESH COALITION BUT WON’T ENGAGE IN COMBAT

US President Donald Trump told fellow Nato leaders yesterday that the United States would never stop fighting terrorism, calling the Manchester attack “savage” and “barbaric”.

While he also accused low-spending members of the alliance of owing “massive amounts of money” to Nato, Trump said he and allies would drive out militants and urged all nations to do the same.

“We will never waiver in our determination to defeat terrorism and achieve lasting security, prosperity and peace,” Trump said after unveiling a memorial to the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington at Nato headquarters.

“Terrorism must be stopped or ... the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever,” Trump said, referring to Monday’s suicide bomb in the northern English city that killed 22 people, including children.

Trump stands united with other Nato countries in defending all members of the Western military alliance, a senior White House official said yesterday, after Trump made no mention of Nato’s Article V in his speech.

“It’s the core of the alliance,” the official said after Trump’s address.

Nato’s founding treaty states that an attack on one ally is an attack on all, but Trump questioned that in his election campaign and has not publicly backed the defence commitment set out in Article V.

Ahead of Trump’s arrival in Brussels, Nato’s SecretaryGeneral Jens Stoltenberg affirmed yesterday that the alliance will join the international coalition fighting the Daesh terror group but will not wage direct war against the terrorists. Stoltenberg said that joining the US-led antiDaesh 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.”