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BRUSSELS : NATO leaders will try to calm a feverish atmosphere as their summit ends Thursday with talks on Afghanistan and Ukraine, after the US president Donald Trump has stung a double request. The Brussels summit announces it as the most difficult of the alliance for years, in a context of growing unrest in the face of the Russian threat and deepening of transatlantic tensions in areas ranging from trade to l & # 39; energy.
The US president, who said his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next week "could be the easiest part" of his European tour, kicked German Chancellor Angela Merkel. During the NATO meeting with a lightning attack on Germany, the caller a "captive" Moscow because of its gas links.
He also asked NATO members to increase their defense spending to four nt of GDP, from the current target of two percent within the 10 years agreed upon at the end of the year. A 2014 summit in Wales.
Bulgarian President Rumen Radev confirmed that Trump had made the request and asked what this meant for the future of the alliance that was the foundation of European security for 70 years.
"NATO is not a purse where NATO is an alliance of sovereign nations united by strategic goals and common values," he told reporters.
But all 29 NATO leaders, including Trump, supported a joint statement committing to greater burden-sharing and to the founding commitment of the United States. alliance that an attack against a member is an attack against them. 19659009] Friends Like Them
The mood was already piquant in front of the summit, prompting the President of the European Union, Donald Tusk, to urge Trump to "appreciate" his allies and to remind him that Europe had come to his aid following the attacks of 11 September.
Trump explicitly linked NATO to a transatlantic trading line by saying that the EU was excluding American affairs until America defended it.
The US leader also criticized Germany for its defense spending.
Germany, the largest economy in Europe, spends only 1.24%, compared to 3.5% for the United States.
Trump specifically targeted the Nord Stream II gas pipeline project, which runs from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
"Everyone is talking about it all over the world, they say we are paying you billions of dollars to protect you, but you are paying billions of dollars to Russia," he said on Wednesday. Jens Stoltenberg
Merkel, who grew up in Communist East Germany, replied that she knew what it meant to be under the rule of the Kremlin and was happy that a Germany Unified is now able to "make its own independent policies and make its own independence. decisions. "[19659002] The couple later meets for a one-to-one meeting and while Trump insisted that they had a" very, very good relationship, "their icy body language suggested the opposite
The Kremlin Worries
European Diplomats are wary of a repeat G7 divider last month in Canada when Trump clashed with his Western allies before meeting Kim Jong Un at a summit, where he congratulated the North Korean leader as being "very talented."
leader in Helsinki on July 16 for their first summit in the midst of an ongoing investigation at United States on possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia
There were fears that Trump, eager to make a breakthrough with the Kremlin 's strongman, could make concessions that would weaken the government. western unit on issues like Ukraine and the Syria.
Trump heads to Britain on Thursday, where the government is in crisis over Brexit and where tensions with Russia have spiked after Moscow It is the same military-grade toxin that has nearly killed a former Russian spy and his daughter during an earlier attack that Britain also blamed in Moscow. – AFP
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