GERMANY IS PUTIN’S CAPTIVE: TRUMP’S SHOCK NATO TIRADE
Er, the planes are over there, Donald!
DONALD Trump launched a blistering attack against Germany yesterday, claiming it was a ‘captive’ to Russia over a controversial gas pipeline.
The US President stunned Nato leaders saying it was ‘very inappropriate’ for Berlin to be supporting the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between its country and Russia.
It means 80 per cent of Russian gas imports into Europe being routed through Germany.
Mr Trump questioned why America is spending billions of dollars to help with counter-defence against the Kremlin, only for billions to be handed to Russia for energy deals.
The attack came as the President also demanded Britain and its other allies double their target for defence spending, telling Nato countries they should increase spending to 4 per cent of GDP – even though just five countries hit the current 2 per cent target.
Mr Trump told Nato general secretary Jens Stoltenberg in front of reporters: ‘It is very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia. We’re supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia.
‘So we’re protecting Germany, we’re protect-- France, we’re protecting all of these countries, and then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia where they’re paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia.’
He blasted the scenario as ‘very inappropriate’, adding: ‘It should never have been allowed to have happened but Germany is totally controlled by Russia because they will be getting from 60 to 70 per cent of their energy from Russia.’
On defence spending, Mr Trump is said to have told Nato leaders: ‘The target is 2 per cent. Most of you are not doing that, some of you are. But 2 per cent? It should be 4 per cent.’
The demand was later confirmed by a White House official. It would mean the UK, one of only five countries hitting the 2 per cent of GDP Nato target, doubling its current defence budget from the £40billion a year it currently stands at. Although there is little prospect of it being met, Mr Trump’s intervention will strengthen the hand of Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson in his battle with the Treasury for more cash. No10 last night declined to comment on the demand.
Theresa May told Nato leaders that non-US spending defence had increased by £67billion in the year since Mr Trump began to turn up the heat – the biggest increase for 25 years. But she warned Europe had to take more responsibility for its own security. ‘ Of course more can and should be done in terms of defence spending,’ she said. ‘Our collective security depends on it.’
At a ‘bilateral breakfast’ with Mr Stoltenberg, Mr Trump threatened that America was ‘going to have to do something’ and was ‘not going to put up’ with spending hundreds of billions more on defence than other allies.
He described it as ‘ very unfair’ that the US pours more than 3.5 per cent of GDP into defence while countries such as Germany spend little more than 1 per cent.
America spends around $686billion on defence compared with Germany’s $46billion.
The febrile atmosphere thickened when Chancellor Angela Merkel hit back within minutes, insisting Germany would be making its ‘own independent decisions’.
Referring to when her country was under the iron grip of the Soviet Union, she said as she arrived for the summit in Brussels: ‘I myself have also experienced a part of Germany being controlled by the Soviet Union.
‘I am very glad that we are united today in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany and that we can therefore also make our own independent policies and make our own independent decisions.’
The target Nato sets for its 29 members is to devote at least 2 per cent of GDP on defence spending. But according to the alliance’s latest estimates only five countries managed this: America, Britain, Estonia, Greece and Poland.
Officials for Nato’s 29 members had privately expressed nervousness at the presence of Mr Trump in the run-up to the summit and what he might say. The President used Twitter to launch a series of attacks in relation to the amount allies spend on defence in the run up to the summit. He later emerged from the talks with Mrs Merkel for a frosty press conference in which he claimed he had a ‘very good relationship with the Chancellor’.
‘It should never have been allowed to happen’