Trump, NATO head discuss cost sharing
President’s meeting with Secretary- General is in preparation for going to Brussels summit in May
President Trump said Wednesday he’s satisfied that NATO has begun to respond to the criticism he levied at the alliance during his presidential campaign, especially in retooling to combat terrorism.
“I said it was obsolete. It is no longer obsolete,” Trump said at a White House press conference after a meeting with NATO Secretary- General Jens Stoltenberg.
But he also made clear he’s not satisfied with the number of countries devoting the benchmark 2% of their economic output to common defense. “Many have not been doing that,” he said. “If other countries pay their fair share instead of relying on the United States to make up the difference, we will all be much more secure.”
And he repeated his suggestion — first made to German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month — that allies owe back dues. “I did ask about all the money that hasn’t been paid over the years. Will that money be coming back?” Trump said. “So we’ll be talking about that.”
Trump met with the NATO chief as he prepares for his first overseas trip as president, to the NATO Summit in Brus- sels next month, and the day after Trump signed paperwork formally agreeing to the inclusion of Montenegro, a former republic of Yugoslavia, into the alliance. Montenegro has accused Russia of being behind an attempted election day coup last October in an effort to keep the country out of NATO.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that the Montenegro accession was a signal “that the door to membership in the Euro- Atlantic community of nations remains open” — a message specifically targeted to eastern European nations formerly under Soviet and Russian influence.
Trump and Stoltenberg said they also spoke about the joint U. S.- NATO operation in Afghanistan, efforts to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, and Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
But first, NATO must deal with internal tensions over the cost- sharing for the collective defense.
A 2014 agreement reached at the NATO summit in Wales requires every NATO ally to “aim to move toward” spending 2% of their economic output on defense by 2024.
Trump has often misrepresented that agreement, claiming that it was retroactive and that NATO allies owe money directly to the United States.
“Many nations owe vast sums of money from past years, and it is very unfair to the United States. These nations must pay what they owe,” Trump told Merkel last month.
He followed that up with a tweeted claim that Germany “owes vast sums” to NATO and that “the United States must be paid more.”