Leaders fears Donald Trump will trigger NATO crisis
EUROPEAN leaders are bracing for a bruising attack from an emboldened Donald Trump at the NATO summit, as he pushes allies to “pay what they owe”.
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EUROPEAN leaders are bracing for a bruising attack from an emboldened Donald Trump at today’s NATO summit, as he pushes allies to “pay what they owe”.
On the eve of his four-nation tour which concludes with his first one-on-one summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, the US President fired a series of broadsides over Twitter.
“The United States is spending far more on NATO than any other countries. This is
not fair, nor is it acceptable,” he said.
NATO countries must pay MORE, the United States must pay LESS. Very Unfair!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2018
Since the G7, Trump has repeatedly warned that if countries, such as Germany who is the biggest culprit for underspending, do not fulfil their commitment to contribute two per cent of their gross domestic product on defence by 2024, there will be consequences.
America contributes 3.58 per cent of its budget to the alliance.
“It’s in the interests of the US to prop up NATO,” Judy Dempsey, Carnegie Europe analyst, told News Corp.
“The US needs like-minded allies to support some of its ambitions.”
But of potentially even greater concern to European leaders is Trump’s ‘love-fest’ a few days later with Putin, similar to what he did with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
“Putin’s goal for years has been to undermine NATO. Now he has an American president who seems to share his goal,” NATO expert James Goldgeier said.
If Trump were to make peace with Russia and “embrace all that Putin stands for”, he could cancel military exercises in eastern Europe and withdraw troops from Europe, Mr Goldgeier said. Experts say it would not only threaten security but would be a “moral blow” to NATO.
When the NATO treaty was signed in 1949, its aim was to protect western Europe
from attack by the Soviet Union. Following the Cold War, the US saw NATO — a
military alliance of 29 US, Canada and European countries — as a vehicle to maintaining its leading role in European security.
“Previous US presidents have always seen the network of alliances as enhancing
America’s power, and giving the US an advantage over China and Russia — Donald
Trump doesn’t see it that way,” Mr Goldgeier said.
He said Europeans were “very nervous” that Trump could trigger a crisis within NATO and threaten the transatlantic bond which the allies had shared “in the face of Russian aggression.”
As Trump continues his angry rhetoric against NATO allies, fears mount that he could lessen America’s commitment to it. He has reportedly already been examining withdrawal of US troops from Germany.
Dempsey said it was a “complicated time” and one that impacted not just Europe,
but Asia and Australia.
She, along with Godgeier, have long argued for a new NATO pact that would take in other nations including Australia and Singapore.
“The west is much bigger than it was after 1945, and the threats are global,” she said.
Originally published as Leaders fears Donald Trump will trigger NATO crisis