Pay-or-we-could-walk comments set off alarm bells across Europe
Trump talked tough on NATO allies in interview
“Whoever wins the presidential election, I hope the United States will remain a solid NATO partner.” Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka
The president of Estonia quickly assured the world his nation, a 12-year member of NATO, is spending its fair share on defense. The Czech prime minister expressed hope the United States would not abandon his people in a crisis. A Latvian member of parliament worried about NATO disunity and broken promises.
They quickly reacted Thursday to Donald Trump’s art-of-the-deal tough talk in an interview with The New York Times that NATO partners should pay their fair share of defense spending or risk abandonment by Washington if threatened with an attack.
All but five of NATO’s 28 member-states meet their commitment of paying at least 2% of their economic output on defense, according to the alliance.
“We’re talking about countries that are doing very well,” the Republican presidential nominee told the Times. “Yes, I would be absolutely prepared to tell those countries, ‘Congratulations, you will be defending yourself.’ ”
He said this would be his way of negotiating a financial commitment from allies in NATO and around the world.
“In a deal, you always have to be prepared to walk,” Trump said in the interview. “Hillary Clinton has said, ‘We will never, ever walk.’ That’s a wonderful phrase. But unfortunately, if I were on Saudi Arabia’s side, Germany, Japan, South Korea and others, I would say, ‘Oh, they’re never leaving, so what do we have to pay them for?’ Does that make sense?”
Article 5 of NATO’s treaty says any attack on one member is an attack on all of them. The section has been invoked only once in the alliance’s 66-year history and that was in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves tweeted Thursday that his nation had fought terrorism under Article 5 “with no caveats.” He said: “We are equally committed to all our NATO allies, regardless of who they may be. That’s what makes them allies.”
The five NATO members who spend at least 2% of their economic output on defense are the United States, Greece, United Kingdom, Estonia and Poland.
Latvian lawmaker Ojars Kalnins, who chairs parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told Latvian radio that Trump’s remarks were “both dangerous and irresponsible.”
Trump’s remarks come as Russian President Vladimir Putin has directed the largest military buildup by his country since the fall of the Soviet Union.
“Whoever wins the presidential election, I hope the United States will remain a solid NATO partner,” Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka told reporters Thursday.