Trump calls on NATO countries to increase military spending to 4% of GDP

BRUSSELS.

American President, Donald Trump raised this Wednesday that the NATO member states increase military spending up to 4% of their GDP respectively compared with 2 percent agree on the Welsh summit in 2014, and criticized Germany for both its energy policy and for its investment in defense.

The President is in Brussels to attend the NATO Leaders Summit on Wednesday and Thursday, and he will then pursue a European tour of the United Kingdom and Helsinki, where he will meet with the President. Russian Vladimir Putin.

At the President's comments today at the NATO summit, he suggested that countries not only honor their commitment to allocate 2% of their GDP to defense spending, but that they increase it to 4%, "said Sarah Euckabee Sanders, White House spokeswoman, to Efe.

Trump has already made the same proposal at the summit of the United States. NATO last year

When asked about this initiative at a press conference, the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, insisted that the agreement reaches 2. percentage of GDP. "Let's start with that," he said.

The countries of NATO agreed at the summit of Wales in 2014 to allocate 2% from their respective savings to military spending, which has become the main requirement of Trump to the allies.

The businessman and the politician have ffé the atmosphere of the meeting with its harsh criticism of energy policy and spending for the defense of Germany, albeit in a bilateral meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, both reaffirmed their "good relations."

Trump has not hesitated to ensure that Berlin is "totally controlled" and is "captive" of Moscow for the Nord Stream II pipeline project, which will link In a bilateral meeting with Stoltenberg before the start of the summit, the US president has deemed "very sad" that Germany concludes a "mbadive" agreement on oil and gas with Russia, while "it is supposed" that United States of America Protect their allies against Moscow

Germany pays thousands and millions of dollars a year to Russia, "criticized Trump, who described the situation as" very inadequate "and regretted that the former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, managed by the Russian public gas company Gazprom

Germany is fully controlled by Russia because it receives between 60 and 70% of its energy from Russia in the new pipeline, "said Trump. He asked if it was "adequate" and added that in his opinion this was not the case and that it seemed "very bad for NATO".

Trump and Merkel presume "a very good relationship"

The president of the world's largest power also criticized the fact that Germany spends only a little more than 1% of GDP to military spending, while the United States contributed 3.57% in 2017, according to data from the Alliance.

call the "failing" countries of NATO that do not yet reach the 2% target.

He also insisted that Washington was paying "a lot of money" to protect NATO partners, compared to other member countries, which are investing less in defense, and recognized that other presidents of the world's leading power have already raised these differences. but they did not do like him

I want to raise it because I think it's very unfair to our country, to our taxpayers, and I think those countries should increase (spending military) not in a period of ten years. In the specific case of Germany, he said that it was "a rich country" and that it could increase "tomorrow" investment and "have no problem.

I do not think it's right However, at a later meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, both badured that they had a "good relationship" and were "good partners" ". 19659005] Trump said that he raised the

President also met with French President, Emmanuel Macron, and stressed his good relations with the French.

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