NATO summit: Trump imposes the issue of military spending by allies



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Disturbing the agenda of the NATO summit, Donald Trump's critics forced the emergency meeting on Thursday of a meeting on the level of military spending by member countries.

Meeting No. was not planned, but Donald Trump imposed it on the agenda of the NATO summit. By reiterating, on Thursday, July 12, his criticism of the level of military spending by his allies in the organization, the US president forced the holding of an urgent meeting and said at a press conference to have obtained the commitment of member countries to increase military spending faster than expected to 2% of GDP

Donald Trump, who spoke of "immense progress", reaffirmed the US's commitment to NATO and declared that it was "not necessary" now to threaten to leave the institution.

For Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, the meeting only confirmed the commitments already made by member countries to for 2024 a level of military spending of 2% of GDP.

Donald Trump set the tone for this day early in the morning by renewing his criticism against Germany and his demand for a doubling of spending devoted to defense. 9659003] "Germany has just started to pay Russia, the country it wants to protect itself, billions of dollars for its energy needs from a new gas pipeline from Russia. It is unacceptable! ", Had tweeted early in the morning the US President, seeing a paradox between the mission of NATO – supposed since the Cold War to protect the allies of the Americans from Russia [ex-Union soviétique] – and trade relations between Moscow and Berlin.

"All NATO countries must respect their commitment of 2%, and this must ultimately increase to 4%!", He had hammered again in another tweet. 19659003] The agenda of the day disturbed

On Wednesday, Donald Trump had urged the allies of the United States to increase their defense spending to 4% of their GDP. 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 US official policy, but it undermines the meaning of the joint declaration of the NATO summit and stresses that no increase in spending is likely to satisfy Trump ", according to the analyst Erik Brattberg, director of the Carnegie Foundation Europe Program

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The second day of the NATO summit in Brussels would normally be devoted to Ukraine, Georgia, Afghanistan and Iraq. Believing that Donald Trump's anger over military spending was over, the leaders of NATO nations have even tried to highlight the "positive" atmosphere of future exchanges.

"We will continue this morning work in an atmosphere much quieter 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 done in recent years, so calm and rigor is what we owe to our armed forces, "said Emmanuel Macron before the start of the second day of work.

With AFP

First published: 12/07/2018

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