Trump labels NATO `obsolete` in newspaper interview
Donald Trump said in an interview, complaining that the pact had "not bothered about terrorism".
AFP, Frankfurt :
The NATO alliance is an “obsolete” organisation, US President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview published late on Sunday, complaining that the pact had “not bothered about terrorism”.
“I said a long time ago that NATO had problems. Number one it was obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago,” Trump told the Monday editions of German tabloid Bild and the Times of London.
While he said NATO remains “very important to me,” he returned to a favourite campaign-trail complaint that some NATO allies weren’t paying enough.
“We’re supposed to protect countries. But a lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States.
“With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much,” he added.
The US accounts for some 70 percent of spending by NATO nations.
Immediately after Trump’s election victory, the organisation’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg recalled that NATO had been at the heart of transatlantic security since its founding in 1949.
Members of NATO are pledged to defend one another if attacked, with the self-defence clause invoked only once in history-after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
In 2014, leaders of the 22-nation alliance-originally founded in response to the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe-agreed to return defence spending to their commitment of 2.0 percent of GDP in the wake of Russian intervention in Ukraine and upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa.
Five days before his inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, the billionaire populist let loose a torrent of controversial comments about European allies in interviews with British newspaper The Times and Germany’s Bild.
He extended a hand to Russia, which has been hit by a string of sanctions under his predecessor Barack Obama over Moscow’s involvement in Ukraine, the Syrian war and for alleged cyber attacks to influence the US election.
“Let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia,” Trump said in remarks carried by The Times.
The US president-elect suggested a deal in which nuclear arsenals would be reduced and sanctions against Moscow would be eased, but gave no details.
“Russia’s hurting very badly right now because of sanctions, but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit,” said the president-elect, who has previously expressed admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Washington’s European allies imposed sanctions against Russia over Ukraine in 2014. Those measures were renewed on December 19.
The NATO alliance is an “obsolete” organisation, US President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview published late on Sunday, complaining that the pact had “not bothered about terrorism”.
“I said a long time ago that NATO had problems. Number one it was obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago,” Trump told the Monday editions of German tabloid Bild and the Times of London.
While he said NATO remains “very important to me,” he returned to a favourite campaign-trail complaint that some NATO allies weren’t paying enough.
“We’re supposed to protect countries. But a lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States.
“With that being said, NATO is very important to me. There’s five countries that are paying what they’re supposed to. Five. It’s not much,” he added.
The US accounts for some 70 percent of spending by NATO nations.
Immediately after Trump’s election victory, the organisation’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg recalled that NATO had been at the heart of transatlantic security since its founding in 1949.
Members of NATO are pledged to defend one another if attacked, with the self-defence clause invoked only once in history-after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
In 2014, leaders of the 22-nation alliance-originally founded in response to the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe-agreed to return defence spending to their commitment of 2.0 percent of GDP in the wake of Russian intervention in Ukraine and upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa.
Five days before his inauguration as the 45th President of the United States, the billionaire populist let loose a torrent of controversial comments about European allies in interviews with British newspaper The Times and Germany’s Bild.
He extended a hand to Russia, which has been hit by a string of sanctions under his predecessor Barack Obama over Moscow’s involvement in Ukraine, the Syrian war and for alleged cyber attacks to influence the US election.
“Let’s see if we can make some good deals with Russia,” Trump said in remarks carried by The Times.
The US president-elect suggested a deal in which nuclear arsenals would be reduced and sanctions against Moscow would be eased, but gave no details.
“Russia’s hurting very badly right now because of sanctions, but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit,” said the president-elect, who has previously expressed admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Washington’s European allies imposed sanctions against Russia over Ukraine in 2014. Those measures were renewed on December 19.
