On Thursday, Donald Trump repeated his threat to leave NATO countries that do not meet the defense spending target at the mercy of Russia.
Aspiring to be president of the United States again Donald Trump’s advisers are planning major changes in compliance with the most central principle of the military alliance NATO, the fifth article.
If Trump is elected president, the United States might defend against attack only those NATO member countries that spend a jointly agreed minimum amount of money on their defense expenditures. The news agencies report on it Bloomberg and Reuters.
Making the principle of common defense conditional would change the nature of the foreign and security policy of the United States for decades, Bloomberg reminds. It would also call into question the credibility of NATO’s central deterrent.
Article 5 protection should be removed from countries that do not meet the defense spending target, says a national security adviser in Trump’s previous administration Keith Kellogg In an interview with Reuters.
The United States, under Trump’s leadership, might put pressure on the “backlogged” NATO countries by increasing customs duties as well, according to Sources from Trump’s inner circle named by Bloomberg.
Trump repeated his threat
Trump himself has repeated his alarming threat that the United States under his leadership would not defend a NATO country under attack by Russia that spends less than two percent on defense of its gross domestic product.
– One of the leaders of the NATO countries stood up and asked: do you mean that if we don’t pay the bills, you won’t protect us? I replied that that’s exactly what I mean. I’m not going to protect you.
Trump made his latest comments at a campaign event in South Carolina early Thursday morning Finnish time. He boasted that during his presidency, he got the NATO allies to pay their share of the military alliance’s expenses.
– I have said that if you do not pay, we will not protect you. Okay?
The words of the former president and the likely Republican presidential candidate have caused consternation in NATO member countries on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the weekend, Trump said outright that he would urge Russia to attack the NATO countries that are in arrears.
It would pressure Zelenskyi and Putin to the negotiating table
Sources interviewed by Bloomberg also talk about the efforts of Trump’s possible future administration to bring about peace negotiations in Ukraine.
Advisers pondered the ways in which the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and the President of Russia Vladimir Putin could be pushed to the negotiating table.
The Trump administration would put pressure on Zelenskyi by saying that the United States will cut off support for Ukraine and Putin by saying that the United States will increase support for Ukraine, says an unnamed source interviewed by the news agency.
Source: Reuters