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Donald Trump on Thursday renewed his criticism of Germany and its demand for a doubling of spending on defense on the second day of a NATO summit in Brussels.
"Germany is coming to start paying Russia, the country it wants to protect itself, billions of dollars for its energy needs from a new gas pipeline from Russia.That's unacceptable! ", tweeted early in the morning M Trump
This new salvo, similar to the one of the day before, comes after a meeting on Wednesday with the German Chancellor with whom he said to have "very good relations", during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the summit.
"All NATO countries must respect their 2% commitment, and that must eventually go to 4%!", Re-hammered again in another tweet.
Wednesday, Donald Trump urged US allies to end up spending 4% of their P IB their defense expenses. The requirement is not new. The US president had already formulated it last year, but it comes with virulent criticism against the Allies who do not pay enough, Germany in particular.
"Trump's requirement is not serious and it is not part of the official policy of the US But it undermines the meaning of the joint declaration of the NATO summit and emphasizes that no increase in spending is likely to satisfy Trump ", according to the Analyst Erik Brattberg, Carnegie Foundation Europe program director
– "Positive" atmosphere –
Upon their arrival, Thursday morning, for meetings dedicated to Ukraine, Georgia, Afghanistan and In Iraq, NATO leaders strove to emphasize the "positive" atmosphere of trade.
President Trump "was in a good mood and said that Europe is a continent he appreciates. have been good, "said Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bette l.
The Croatian President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovi ?, described the dinner atmosphere on Wednesday as "positive and constructive".
"We are moving forward, the working meetings went very well yesterday on the various topics on the agenda," added the French President Emmanuel Macron.
"We will continue this morning the work in a atmosphere much more peaceful than it is said and with a desire to hold the unity of NATO, the modernization of its authorities, the reaction to new threats, as NATO has been able to do in recent years. calmness, rigor, this is what we owe to our armed forces, "he added.
On the menu of the day: a meeting of the North Atlantic Council with Georgia and Ukraine, and a meeting with the partner nations of NATO's Operation "Resolute Support" in Afghanistan
Having arrived very much in Brussels on Wednesday, Donald Trump opened hostilities by attacking with virulence unpublished in Berlin
"Germany is completely controlled by Russia (…) she is a prisoner of Russia ", he had launched in a tirade of a rare hardness in this kind of rendezvous between allies.
He then insisted that the Allies respect the commitment in 2014 spent 2% of their gross domestic product on defense in 2024 and then asked them to raise it to 4% of their GDP.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg evaded the issue in from his press conference at the end of the day. "Let's start already with the 2% for which there is still much to do," he said.
– Putin in Helsinki –
Fifteen member states, including Germany , Canada, Italy, Belgium and Spain, are under 1.4% of GDP in 2018 and will be unable to keep their word, which ulcers the US president, who then demanded, in a tweet, that the Allies carry their military expenses to 2% "IMMEDIATELY."
Donald Trump and Angela Merkel had the opportunity to explain themselves during a tête-à-tête after the first working session. The president, who then changed his tone, said he had discussed the project to double the Nord Stream gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, which he strongly opposed, but he refused to enter into the details of the interview
Angela Merkel said she was "happy to have had the opportunity of an exchange of views" with the US president. "We are partners, we are good partners and we want to continue cooperating in the future," she said, simply
The Europeans feared a difficult summit.
Donald Trump had indeed left Washington bellicose mood, declaring, with the taste of the provocation that is his, that his meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin planned for Monday in Helsinki could be "easier" than the NATO summit
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