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MADRID, (FOLHAPPRESS) – US President Donald Trump has not thwarted expectations that he would arrive in Brussels by bothering his allies on Wednesday.
At the opening of the NATO summit, the alliance
These states are working to devote 2% of their GDP to the sector, but Trump now suggests doubling the goal and reach up to 4%. This percentage is even higher than the forecast for US defense spending this year of 3.5% of GDP.
In addition to the suggestion for the defense, Trump bothered at the opening of the summit saying that Germany is a "prisoner" of Russia.
He said that Berlin is investing on a pipeline to import Russian gas instead of using this money to protect itself from Moscow: "In theory, we must defend ourselves against Russia, and Germany go and pay them billions and billions of dollars a year. "
After shutting down coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants, Berlin increasingly relies on gas imported from Russia. According Agora Energiewende, 35% of German natural gas and 40% of its oil come from the country of Vladimir Putin.
"We protect Germany, we protect France, we protect all these countries.
In what was understood as an answer to the American, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said at the summit:
"I saw the fact that part of the I am very happy that today we are united in a free way, so we can say that we are able to make our own decisions independently. "
Merkel also contradicted the American accusation that European allies do not spend enough on common defense projects.
"Germany is the second largest supplier of soldiers, most of our military capabilities are available to NATO and even today, we have moved a lot in Afghanistan. [19659012] This kind of friction between Trump and his European allies was expected since before the summit. "The US president has criticized the European Union since his election campaign in 2016,
Trump should meet President Putin on Monday in Finland disturbing his partners, fearing, for example, that he is calling for an end to the sanctions. imposed on Moscow after the annexation of Crimea
Criticizing NATO colleagues, the American compared his meetings in Brussels with those planned in Helsinki next week: "Frankly, Putin can to be the easiest of all Who would say? "
The President of the European Council Donald Tusk had already pinned the American President the day before with a message posted on a social network
" The United States did not not and will not be better than the European Union.We are spending more in defense than Russia and as much as China.I hope you have no doubt that is an investment in our security, which can not be said with certainty about Russian and Chinese spending. "
The NATO treaty states that its 29 member countries defend each other in the event of an emergency. external attacks. Trump questioned this principle from the idea that the United States contributes more than the European countries.
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