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Trump claims victory at Nato summit after fresh row over defence spending Trump claims victory at Nato summit after fresh row over defence spending
(about 5 hours later)
Donald Trump has claimed victory at the Nato summit, saying progress had been made on defence spending only hours after throwing the Brussels meeting intodisarray with fresh attacks on European allies. Nato’s European leaders have been left reeling after one of the most divisive summits in the organisation’s 69-year-old history, at which Donald Trump set a January deadline for them to increase defence spending and hinted that the US may quit the alliance if they fail to meet it.
Asked whether he had threatened to pull out of Nato, the US president did not directly deny it. He told a surprise press conference before he was scheduled to leave that he only told people he would be “extremely unhappy” if spending was not increased. While other Nato members treated his warnings as a bluff, they left the Brussels summit stunned at the end of two days of mayhem, almost all of it orchestrated by Trump.
Trump claimed he could pull the US out of Nato without the approval of Congress. “I think I probably can but that’s unnecessary,” he said. In the final hours he again reduced the 29-member organisation, the most powerful military coalition in the world, to chaos. He turned up late for a meeting, ignored the issues on the table, demanded fresh talks and secured an emergency discussion on spending.
He said the alliance members had agreed to reach spending 2% of GDP on defence faster than previously planned and claimed financial commitments would increase beyond that in future. Afterwards, at a hastily convened press conference, Trump claimed he had emerged victorious, saying European leaders had caved in to his demands – something both the French and German later denied.
But other delegations and Nato officials contradicted Trump, saying he had secured no significant concessions and their defence spending plans remained basically the same as they had been before the summit. He said they had agreed to reach the Nato target of spending 2% of GDP on defence faster than previously planned, and he claimed financial commitments would increase beyond that in the future.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, denied Trump’s claim that Nato powers agreed to increase defence spending beyond previous targets. “I can you tell you that Nato now is a really a fine-tuned machine. People are paying money that they never paid before. They’re happy to do it. And the United States is being treated much more fairly,” he said.
The renewed criticism of European Nato members for not spending enough on defence came at a closed session on Thursday morning that had been intended to be confined to non-budgetary issues. But other European leaders, in particular the French president, Emmanuel Macron, flatly contradicted this, saying no extra rises had been agreed beyond those set out in a Nato communique published on Wednesday, which contained only a vague timetable of promises, basically the same as those that existed before the summit started.
The US president’s outburst led to the scrapping of a series of press conferences and bilateral meetings as European leaders struggled to respond. The British prime minister, Theresa May, and the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, cancelled press conferences. “There is a communique that was published yesterday. It’s very detailed,” Macron said. “It confirms the goal of 2% by 2024. That’s all.”
Trump turned up late for the morning sessions involving Nato leaders, intended to discuss the accession of Ukraine and Georgia to the alliance. When he delivered his rebuke about defence spending, the Ukrainian and Georgian leaders were asked to leave because it was a purely Nato matter. Trump made ambiguous remarks hinting that the US could leave Nato unless other countries increased defence spending and apparently setting a deadline of January, which most of them would regard as totally impractical.
Soon after, the meeting broke up. European leaders retreated to their offices for discussion with their officials. “He said they must raise spending by January 2019 or the United States would go it alone,” according to a source quoted by Reuters.
At a 35-minute press conference at Nato headquarters, Trump seemed to contradict his earlier criticism of Nato and the European member states. He said US commitment to Nato “remained “very strong” and the “fantastic” meeting of the alliance members had demonstrated “a great collegial spirit”. Macron denied that Trump’s words about the US going its own way should be interpreted as a threat to quit. “President Trump never at any moment, either in public or in private, threatened to withdraw from Nato,” Macron said.
He added: “Nato is much stronger now than it was two days ago.” Trump did not elaborate at the press conference about what his words meant but declined several opportunities to deny the interpretation that it was an ultimatum. He even added fuel to the fire when he said, in response to a question about whether he could withdraw the US from Nato without the approval of Congress, required under the US constitution: “I think I probably can, but that’s unnecessary.”
Trump, who leaves Brussels for a visit to the UK, said he was fine about the protests planned for his trip and insisted he was popular in the UK. Nato membership is agreed by a treaty that would require a two-thirds majority in the Senate to overthrow. The US military regards Nato as indispensable.
He said he had described the UK as “a hotspot” because of Brexit and the cabinet resignations. “There will be protests. There will always be protests,” he said, adding that people in the UK liked him and agreed with him on immigration. Summing up, Trump claimed the summit had ended happily. “I let them know that I was extremely unhappy … It all came together at the end. It was a little tough for a little while.”
The turmoil at the Nato summit came a day after Trump strongly criticised Germany for not spending enough on defence. Officials from the European delegations subsequently said he had been relatively calm in the closed sessions later on Thursday and during a working dinner. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, described the summit as “very intense”. Trump repeatedly singled out Germany over the two days. The US spends 3.5% of GDP on defence, compared with Germany’s 1.2%.
In spite of that, a tweet from Trump on Wednesday showed he remained far from satisfied with the European response. Asked whether Trump had threatened to quit, Merkel said: “The US president demanded what has been discussed for months: that the burden-sharing should change.” She echoed Macron, saying there had been no change as a result of the emergency meeting.
The tweet fitted into a pattern throughout the two-day summit, with Trump at one moment ranting at European allies and the next insisting relations are good. The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, abandoned a session discussing moves towards Nato membership for Georgia, diplomatically sensitive because its sits on Russia’s flank, and beefing up the organisation’s role in Afghanistan.
What good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy? Why are there only 5 out of 29 countries that have met their commitment? The U.S. is paying for Europe’s protection, then loses billions on Trade. Must pay 2% of GDP IMMEDIATELY, not by 2025. He cleared the room of all non-Nato leaders, from countries such as Georgia and Afghanistan, and held a closed session with Trump and the other 28 Nato leaders.
Five of the 29 Nato members have reached the target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defence. These include the US, which spends 3.5%, and the UK on just over 2%. Stoltenberg said: “We had a very frank and open discussion … That discussion has made Nato stronger. It has created a new sense of urgency. A clear message from President Trump is having an impact.”
Trump had planned to step out of the closed session to hold bilateral meetings with the leaders of Azerbaijan, Romania, Ukraine and Georgia. After Trump’s visit to the UK – he flew from Brussels straight to London – he will meet Vladimir Putin in Helsinki next week. The Russian leader can take satisfaction from the disarray inside Nato. One of the fears among Nato leaders is that Trump might make concessions to Putin just as he did when he met the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in Singapore last month.
Asked at his press conference about whether he might make concessions to Putin such as cutting military exercises in eastern Europe or recognising the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 , Trump was vague. He said the annexation had taken place on the watch of Barack Obama.
NatoNato
Donald TrumpDonald Trump
EuropeEurope
US military
Defence policy
US foreign policyUS foreign policy
Trump administration
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