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Nato leaders are bracing for Donald Trump to redefine the alliance’s mutual defence pact, amid concern that he’ll water down US safety commitments which have protected Europe for eight a long time.
Trump will meet his 31 Nato allies in The Hague on Wednesday, the place European leaders hope their vows to extend nationwide defence spending will persuade him to keep up US safety if their international locations are attacked.
However the president has sparked alarm by telling reporters aboard Air Pressure One on Tuesday that Washington’s dedication to Nato’s Article 5, which refers to its mutual defence pact, “depends upon your definition”.
Trump mentioned there have been “quite a few definitions” of Article 5. “I’m dedicated to being their mates. I’m going to provide you an actual definition after I get there.”
The feedback had solid a pall over the gathering, three European officers on the summit instructed the Monetary Instances, and threatened to mar an occasion designed to maintain the US engaged within the transatlantic relationship.
“The summit rests on what Trump decides,” mentioned one of many officers. “We’re all simply sat right here ready for him to inform us if he’ll defend Europe.”
Trump’s feedback about Article 5 comply with earlier threats solely to defend allies that spend extra on defence, startling European leaders who concern that Russia might assault a Nato member inside the decade.
Torrey Taussig, former director of European affairs on the White Home Nationwide Safety Council, mentioned it was “the very last thing that Nato secretary-general Rutte or Nato allies needed to listen to, as your complete summit has been fastidiously choreographed to safe us dedication to Nato and to keep away from any mud ups with President Trump”.
Mark Rutte has strained to make the summit Trump-friendly, decreasing it to a two-and-a-half hour dialogue and praising him in a personal message for forcing Europeans to extend their army spending.
“Europe goes to pay in a BIG approach, as they need to, and it will likely be your win,” Rutte wrote within the message, which Trump printed on social media.
That unity on extra spending has been challenged by Spain, which has refused a pledge to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035, sparking calls for from different governments for flexibility on the goal.
“Spain’s not agreeing, which may be very unfair to the remainder of them,” Trump mentioned on Air Pressure one on Tuesday.
He added that the US also needs to not pay the identical as “everybody else”, arguing that European defence spending helped enhance infrastructure and “we don’t have any roads in Europe, we don’t have any bridges in Europe”.
Rutte later instructed reporters that he had “little question that the US is completely dedicated to Nato, completely dedicated to Article 5”.
However Rachel Rizzo, a non-resident senior fellow on the Atlantic Council’s Europe Heart, mentioned she didn’t know that Trump had “ever given” a transparent assertion that he would stand by the Nato’s mutual defence pact.
The remainder of the alliance was “perhaps on the lookout for one thing they’re simply by no means going to get”, she mentioned.
The US, by far the biggest defence spender in Nato, is the alliance’s irreplaceable member state, with many European international locations depending on its long-range missiles, intelligence and surveillance property.
Whereas earlier US presidents have demanded European allies spend extra on defence, Trump has gone far additional than his predecessors by linking Washington’s safety help to their commitments.
He has additionally demanded that defence spending be “equalised” between the US and the remainder of the alliance so American army property might focus extra on Asia and the Center East.
“With the Trump administration, all the pieces is a negotiation and all the pieces is on the desk,” mentioned Sophia Gaston, analysis fellow at King’s School, London. “Anyone who belies something completely different is frankly naive.”