Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Trump scolds NATO allies’ lax spending
Not meeting financial goal isn’t fair to U.S., he states
BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump rebuked fellow NATO members Thursday for failing to meet the military alliance’s financial benchmarks, asserting that it leaves the organization weaker and shortchanges “the people and taxpayers of the United States.”
Trump, who has often complained back home about other nations’ NATO support, lectured the other leaders in person this time.
“Twenty-three of the 28 nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they’re supposed to be paying for their defense,”
Trump said. “This is not fair to the people and the taxpayers of the United States.”
The president’s assertion immediately put NATO under new strain and did nothing to quiet questions about his complicated relationship with an alliance he has previously panned as “obsolete.” Notably, he also did not offer an explicit public endorsement of NATO’s “all for one, one for all” collective defense principle, though White House officials said his mere presence at the meeting signaled his commitment.
Fellow NATO leaders occasionally exchanged looks among one another during the president’s lecture, which occurred at an event commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the U.S.
When Trump tried to lighten the mood with a joke about NATO’s gleaming new home base — “I never asked once what the new NATO headquarters cost” — there was no laughter from his counterparts.
NATO officials had expected Trump to raise the payments issue during Thursday’s meeting, even preparing Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg for the prospect that the president could do something like hand out invoices.
As a presidential candidate, Trump railed against NATO’s financial burden-sharing, suggesting that the U.S. might go to the defense only of the countries that meet the alliance’s guidelines — committing 2 percent of their gross domestic product to military spending. A White House official said the president wanted to deliver that message directly to NATO allies.
Last year, only five of the 28 countries met the 2 percent goal: the U.S., Greece, the United Kingdom, Estonia and Poland.
During a private dinner Thursday night, the 28 members, plus soon-to-join Montenegro, renewed an old pledge to move toward the 2 percent by 2024 — a move the White House touted as a sign of Trump’s influence.
Some of the allies — particularly Eastern European nations deeply worried about Russian aggression — were hopeful that Trump would state a firm commitment to NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense agreement, which underpins the entire alliance. Instead, he highlighted NATO’s decision to invoke the article for only the time after Sept. 11, 2001, and said the U.S. would “never forsake the friends that stood by our side.”
The White House insisted that Trump had not intended to leave wiggle room in his commitment to going to the defense of NATO members.
“The intent was to deliver a direct message, which he’s done before,” a senior administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to expand on Trump’s remarks. “He’s been direct with them in rallies, in speeches. He wanted to give the same message that he’s been giving when NATO leaders are present or are not present. It’s the same message he gave on the campaign trail, it’s the same message he gives to the American people, and it’s the same message he gives to leaders one on one.”
Trump’s “confrontational approach has yielded results so far,” the official said. “A lot more countries have stepped up and said we’re going to meet this target sooner.”
Stoltenberg said later that Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and other U.S. officials have stated clearly their assurances. He said, “It’s not possible to be committed to NATO without being committed to Article 5.”
FIGHTING EXTREMISTS
NATO’s chief affirmed that the alliance countries will join the international coalition fighting the Islamic State extremist group but will not wage direct war against the extremists.
Stoltenberg said joining the U.S.-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-Islamic State coalition. 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 also said NATO would consider increasing its noncombat troop presence in Afghanistan.
The administration is reviewing its own presence there, including adding up to 5,000 troops to the nearly 10,000 already on the ground and expanding their role assisting Afghan government forces fighting the Taliban and a local Islamic State presence.
As part of its efforts to respond to Trump’s demand to do more to fight terrorism, NATO will also set up a counterterrorism intelligence cell to improve information-sharing.
It will notably focus on socalled foreign fighters who travel from Europe to train or fight with extremists in Iraq and Syria.
The leaders also endorsed the appointment of an anti-terror coordinator to oversee their efforts, and decided to increase the number of flight hours of a surveillance plane watching the skies over northern Iraq and Syria.
Trump arrived late Thursday night in Sicily for meetings today with leaders from the Group of 7 wealthy nations. The summit marks Trump’s final stop on his first international trip as president, which began in Saudi Arabia and Israel, where he was warmly greeted by the countries’ leaders.
The long day of Brussels meetings was a stark contrast to his friendlier Middle East encounters, where Trump embraced the authoritarian Saudi monarchy and said he had been wowed by Saudi King Salman’s wisdom.
In Brussels, Trump sat in a morning meeting with top European Union leaders. After the talks, European Council President Donald Tusk said he and Trump agreed on a need to combat terrorism but some differences loomed large.
Tusk said pointedly that the West needs to concentrate on “values, not just interests.”
“Values and principles first, this is what we — Europe and America — should be saying,” Tusk told reporters. Tusk, who previously has expressed concern about the new U.S. administration, said he and Trump agreed on counterterrorism, but did not see eye to eye on a number of other issues, including climate change, trade and Russia.
“Some issues remain open, like climate and trade. And I am not 100 percent sure that we can say today — ‘we’ means Mr. President and myself — that we have a common position, common opinions about Russia,” said Tusk. He said unity must be found around values like freedom and human rights and dignity.
Trump lunched with French President Emmanuel Macron, where the two leaders shook hands in a tense, white-knuckled embrace. And he sped across Brussels to NATO, where British Prime Minister Theresa May, the leader of Washington’s closest ally, buttonholed him about her anger over intelligence leaks after Monday’s terrorist attack in Manchester.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer, traveling with the president, downplayed the absence of Trump’s formal commitment to security guarantees during the speech, saying that there was no question of U.S. support for NATO and all of the obligations that are entailed in membership.
“Having to reaffirm something by the very nature of being here and speaking at a ceremony about it is almost laughable,” Spicer said after the speech. Information for this article was contributed by Julie Pace, Jonathan Lemire, Lorne Cook, Raf Casert, Angela Charlton and Virginia Mayo of The Associated Press; and by Philip Rucker, Karen DeYoung and Michael Birnbaum of The Washington Post.