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NATO Summit
The US President – before the start of the work – severely attacked Germany. At breakfast, Stoltenberg called him "Russian prisoner"
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US President Donald Trump launched a stinging attack on Germany at the beginning of the summit of the # 1 39 NATO in Brussels, declaring that an "inadequate" gas agreement with Moscow has made her a "prisoner" of Russia. "Germany is a prisoner of Russia because it receives a lot of energy from Moscow," Trump told the breakfast with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg. "They are paying billions of dollars to Russia and we must defend them against Russia."
Bilateral breakfast with the Secretary General of NATO in Brussels, Belgium … pic.twitter.com/l0EP3lzhCM
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2018
a difficult and tense summit, judging by the expectations, that of the heads of state and government of the 29 countries of NATO which begins this morning at the new headquarters of the 39 Atlantic Alliance in Brussels. At 9 years old, the first leaders begin to arrive (the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte should arrive around noon), then continue the discussions tomorrow
Several injuries inflicted by Trump in recent months to the transatlantic relationship
many injuries inflicted in recent months by US President Donald Trump on multilateralism and transatlantic relations, with the unilateral abandonment of the Iranian nuclear agreement and related sanctions on countries that, like the member states of the United States, EU, intend to continue to maintain trade relations with Tehran, with the US import duties on steel and aluminum, and related European countermeasures, tensions with the US. Germany for its huge trade surplus and the threat of new tariffs on German cars, have led to unprecedented levels of tension between Washington and the United States. European allies. And in the bill must also be added to Trump's refusal to ratify the Paris climate agreement.
Trump attack on the EU. Stoltenberg: our countries come back to spend more on defense
On the American side, moreover, the rhetoric against Europe continues with the accusations of not playing its part in the financing of its own defense, paid largely by Washington, many countries, starting with Germany and Italy, are still far from reaching the goal, agreed in 2014, to allocate at least 2% of their GDP to military spending. Precisely on this point, we expect the NATO summit talks to be more lively, when in fact in recent years, after the cuts due to the economic crisis and the Austerity, military spending has increased almost everywhere in Europe. Last year, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that the increase in defense spending in Europe and Canada was "the highest of the last 25 years".
The European Union makes it impossible for our farmers and our workers to do business in Europe, and then they want to happily defend them through NATO, and pay well for it. It does not work!
– Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2018
It is true that in Germany and Italy, for example, spending exceeds just 1% of PIL. "Estimates indicate that we are expecting eight allies who will spend at least 2% of GDP this year in defense, against only three allies in 2014. Allies are also investing billions in new equipment: we reversed the trend, before we had to make a difference. Stoltenberg said at a briefing in Brussels the day before the summit.
"For decades – recalled the Secretary General – our countries have cut defense spending for billions of dollars. dollars: now they spend billions of dollars more Last year, at the initiative of President Trump, we developed national plans on military spending: according to these plans, we believe that the European and international allies Canada will add $ 266 billion to military spending by 2024. Europe is also worried about the "abnormal" relationship Trump is cultivating with Putin
Another thing that worries Europeans is Trump's "abnormal" relationship with Russia's President Vladimir Putin. will meet at a bilateral summit in Helsinki on July 16th. We know – as evidenced by the failure of the last G7 in Charlevoix, Canada, with the withdrawal of its signature to the US President's conclusions – that Trump wants to bring Russia back to the big table, by restocking the G8. But this risks jeopardizing the common strategy of the alliance, which unites the desire to continue the dialogue with Russia, the firm attitude against the annexation of Crimea by Moscow and the continuing violation Minsk conflict agreements. in Ukraine, with economic sanctions and the strengthening of NATO's defense system along the eastern borders of European allies
On this point, significant has been the intervention of the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, on the occasion of the signing of an EU-NATO cooperation agreement today in Brussels. Trump should remember, said Tusk, that "America does not have, and will not have, a better ally of Europe", and, he added "when he meets President Putin in Helsinki ", it is worth asking" who is his strategic ally and who represents his strategic problem? "
The US Senate reiterates its support for the Alliance
The Senate US approved 97 non-binding resolutions with 97 votes for and only two against which, on the eve of At the beginning of the NATO summit in Brussels, support for the Atlantic Alliance was reiterated, in front of a president Donald Trump, who described it as "obsolete" and did not miss an opportunity to criticize it. "The NATO countries must pay more,
the United States must pay less – very unfair! "writes Trump in a tweet of the usual style, before leaving for the Brussels summit. motion presented by Democrat Jack Reed, were Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee
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