Trump once threatened not to defend NATO against Russia

During an event in Florida on April 21, the former US president Donald Trump admits to warning NATO leaders that the United States may not comply with Article 5 of the alliance’s treaty, if the remaining members do not contribute more money.

“A leader asked if this means you didn’t protect us first Russia if not pay right? I said yes,” Trump said, explaining it was a negotiating tactic. “If I say ‘no, I don’t mean it’, why would they pay? So someone has to say it.”

Article 5 of the NATO treaty stipulates that any attack on a member of the bloc is considered an attack on the whole alliance and NATO will coordinate a response. The only time Article 5 has been invoked in NATO history is the day after the 9/11 attacks in America.

The former US president also expressed surprise that the conversation “did not leak” during his tenure. This conversation was allegedly at the NATO summit in Brussels in 2018 where Mr. Trump threatened the alliance’s membership.

Leaders and those present in the room at this conference said Trump’s threat was not as detailed as what he said at the event on April 21. Two US officials involved in the NATO summit said then-President Trump said at the time that if countries didn’t hit spending levels by the end of 2018, he would “do his own thing”.

Experts then gave different interpretations of Mr. Trump’s statement. Some say Trump is threatening to withdraw from NATO, others say he will make decisions to protect countries based on their ability to meet their defense spending commitments.

Former President Trump has repeatedly asserted that he forced NATO member countries to contribute more names. However, NATO members significantly increased their contributions after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, when Mr. Trump was not yet president of the United States.

Mr. Trump’s comments come as NATO considers adding Finland and Sweden, two of Russia’s neighbors. Both these Nordic countries have announced that they are considering joining NATO, while Russia has repeatedly warned reply if Sweden and Finland join the US-led military alliance.

Nguyen Tien (According to Washington Post)