By Nick Miller
Brussels: Confusion, anger and disagreement spiralled in the wake of Air Force One on Thursday, after a summit of NATO leaders in Brussels ended with Donald Trump claiming – in the face of subsequent denials – that he had won new promises to dramatically boost European defence spending.
According to multiple reports citing NATO and diplomatic officials, the US President threatened to pull the US out of NATO (or “go it alone” on defence) unless other countries in the pact increased their defence budgets quickly and significantly.
Seeing increases everywhere: US President Donald Trump shield his eyes from stage lights as he take questions from members of the media during a news conference before departing the NATO Summit in Brussels.Credit: AP
Some NATO countries would have to double their defence spending in a matter of months to meet Trump’s demands. The president offered to “help them out a little bit” with finance, and added that the US made “by far the best” military equipment.
The President, who before his Tuesday arrival in Brussels flagged he would campaign for an increase in European defence budgets, repeatedly returned to the issue during his visit, and claimed victory in an unscheduled press conference on Thursday afternoon, local time.
Trump said he left NATO “much more powerful than it was two days ago”, saying his campaign had resulted in $US33 billion ($44 billion) more spent on defence among America's NATO allies.
"They agreed to pay more and they agreed to pay it more quickly," he said, though he did not name countries or give a timeline or figure.
Military personnel from member states stand to attention during the NATO summit at the military and political alliance's headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.Credit: Bloomberg
As the dust cleared it was not clear what, if any concrete promises he had won.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, speaking an hour after Trump’s plane roared over NATO headquarters en route to the UK, said Trump’s dollar figure referred to the increase in defence spending in the previous year.
When pressed to explain Trump’s claims he credited the President with a “new sense of urgency” among allies to “redouble our efforts” to increase defence spending, but did not report any new cash or time commitments.
He added that allies had agreed their national plans to get defence spending up to 2 per cent of their GDP should be “credible”.
President Donald Trump on stage during a group photo of NATO heads of government at Park Cinquantenaire in Brussels, Belgium. Credit: AP
At NATO’s 2014 summit in Wales, in the face of new Russian aggression and the annexation of Crimea, the allies had pledged to increase investments in defence and move towards investing 2 per cent of their GDP in collective security.
Then US president Barack Obama said at a press conference at the Wales summit the alliance would “reverse the decline of defence spending and rise to meet the challenges that we face in the 21st century”.
Since then eight of the 29 allies have managed to achieve the 2 per cent level, and a majority have budget plans to reach it by 2024.
French President Emmauel Macron said a NATO communique released on Wednesday and agreed by all the allies including the US was clear: it reaffirmed the 2014 commitment for NATO countries to pay 2 per cent of their GDP on defence.
“That is all,” Macron said.
Italy’s Giuseppe Conte said his country’s spending commitments to NATO “did not change, so [there was] no increase”.
However Trump had already taken the credit for an additional rise in spending, saying “for years presidents have been coming and talked about” the plan, but since he became president “we are doing numbers like they’ve never been done before”.
The second day of the defence pact meeting was disrupted and repeatedly rescheduled, as Trump’s insistence on renegotiating his allies’ defence budgets took precedence over issues such as Ukraine and Georgia’s vulnerability to Russia.
One media report cited NATO officials saying Stoltenberg called an emergency session of alliance leaders after Trump demanded they all lift spending to 4 per cent of GDP – even more than the US spends – or face the US’ disengagement from the pact.
Talking tough to allies: US President Donald TrumpCredit: AP
Stoltenberg said he had called the extra session because the allies felt the issue of burden sharing needed more discussion.
He insisted it had been a “very good” summit because of the frank and open discussion it had hosted.
On spending, he said “we are stepping up as never before, allowing US spending to go down”, and there was a “new sense of urgency due to President Trump’s strong leadership on defence spending”.
Since last year’s NATO summit allies had added $US41 billion to their budgets, he said, and now they would redouble their efforts.
“The clear message from President Trump is having an impact,” he said.
Trump did not directly answer questions about whether he had threatened to take the US out of the alliance, saying he "told people I'd be very unhappy if they didn't up their commitments very substantially... I let them know I was extremely unhappy with what was happening" and on Thursday he had been "probably a little bit more firm".
Jens Stoltenberg, secretary general of the NATO, second right, shakes hands with US President Donald Trump as Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, second left, Charles Michel, Belgium's prime minister, second left, watch.Credit: Bloomberg
Trump said he "probably" had the power to unilaterally take the US out of NATO if he wanted to, without the approval of the US Congress.
German news agency DPA, Politico and The Times London reported Trump had openly threatened that the US would “do our own thing” unless the wealthiest allies were spending the 2 per cent by January.
The Times reported he told the closed session of NATO leaders “2 per cent is a joke. 4 per cent is what people should be spending. We are being played for fools. Every single US president has been pushing the point of extra spending since Reagan and they have all been played I am not going to be.”
The 4 per cent demand was met with “total stunned silence and then utter panic”, the Times reported.
Donald Trump leaves after a press conference at the end of the NATO summit in Brussels.Credit: AP
Politico said Trump warned of “grave consequences” if the allies did not immediately meet the 2 per cent spending targets.
At his press conference, Trump said the US commitment to NATO "remains very strong, primarily because of the spirit they have and the amount of money they're willing to spend, the additional money they're putting up".
"[The] 2 per cent [figure] was a range, a goal, now it's a commitment, it was like this amorphous number out there and now it's a real commitment," he said.
Trump said he wanted "peace all over the world, that's my goal", and he wanted to achieve this by building up the military, with his dream to have the best military equipment in the world and never have to use it.
"I believe through strength you get peace," he said.