When has NATO come to an ally’s defense?
down.” The often repeated comment highlights how a fear of Russia’s expansion has been part of the alliance’s DNA from the beginning.
The collapse of the Soviet Union led some to question whether NATO still had a purpose. Russia has observed the military alliance’s eastward growth with anger. President Vladimir Putin for years has warned that Moscow views NATO’s expansion into what the country views as its historical sphere of influence as a threat.
Putin tried to justify his war against Ukraine in part by citing NATO’s enlargement. NATO leaders have said that Ukraine will join the alliance at some point in the future.
NATO currently has 31 members. Finland became the newest member last year, breaking with decades of non-alignment after Russia invaded Ukraine. Sweden is hoping to join, too, but is still waiting for approval from Hungary.
What else has Trump said on the issue?
Trump has a history of misrepresenting NATO or suggesting that the United States might not honor its commitment to allies. Former national security adviser John Bolton said in a memoir that Trump was close to pulling the U.S. out of NATO in 2018.
Trump spoke that year about NATO as if it were a business going bankrupt. “I went to NATO. And NATO was essentially going out of business ‘cause people weren’t paying and it was going down, down, down,” he said.
He also bemoaned that Americans were “the schmucks that are paying for the whole thing.” U.S. defense spending has actually been decreasing for years.
NATO has helped to keep peace in the Balkans and to provide security in Afghanistan after a U.S.-led coalition invaded the country. The U.S. triggered NATO’s common defense clause, known as Article 5, for the first and only time after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack.
“Poland then sent an army brigade to Afghanistan for a decade and we did not send an invoice to Washington for it. Alliances also strengthen the United States,” Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said Monday.
During his presidency, Trump threatened not to come to the aid of allies who might be under attack if they had not paid their dues.
A defense policy bill approved by the U.S. House in December includes provisions that say the president must get the advice and consent of the Senate or an act of Congress before withdrawing the U.S. as a member of NATO. — VANESSA GERA, ASSOCIATED PRESS