The West criticizes Trump for comments about NATO

2024-02-11 21:47:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The West criticizes Trump for comments about NATO

Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg

Senior Western officials criticized former US President Donald Trump on Sunday after he suggested the United States might not protect NATO allies that are not spending enough on defense from a potential invasion by Russia.

"Any suggestion that allies will not protect each other harms everyone's security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at risk," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said through a written statement.

"Any attack on NATO will result in a common and powerful response", he said.

Trump is likely to win the Republican nomination in the presidential race, which will be held in November this year.

The Polish Minister of Defense, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, has also reacted.

"NATO's motto is 'one for all, all for one', and this is a concrete commitment. Undermining the credibility of allied states means weakening the entire NATO," he said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

"No kind of campaign is an excuse to play with the security of the alliance."

The German Foreign Ministry has posted a message "One for all, all for one" with the slogan "Stronger together", also in X, after Trump's comments.

The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, has said that "the declarations about NATO's security and Act 5 serve only the interests of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin".

Article 5 of the NATO treaty states that an armed attack against a member of the alliance is considered an attack against all countries and prompts common defense.

Trump, recalling a meeting with NATO leaders, during a political march in South Carolina, quoted the president of a "big state", which he did not mention by name, asking him, "Sir, If we don't pay, and we are attacked by Russia, will you protect us?"

"I told him: 'You didn't pay? Are you delinquent?' He said: 'Yes, that's what happened.' No, I will not protect you. I would actually encourage them to do whatever they want. You have to pay".

"We've heard this before... nothing new," said the European Union Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, in an interview with French television LCI.

"He probably has memory problems, but in fact he was a president, not a country, but the European Union," said Breton, referring to a conversation that the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had with Trump, on 2020.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates, asked about Trump's comments, said that "encouraging the invasion of our close allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unconscionable - it endangers American national security, global stability and the economy in our house".

All 31 NATO member countries have agreed to allocate at least 2 percent of the Gross Domestic Product in the field of defense, but NATO data has shown that only 11 of them are doing so./ Rel