Sunday, July 15, 2018

Donald Trump’s threat to pull out of Nato



NATO heads of State pose for a family picture during the opening ceremony of the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) summit, at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, 11 July 2018



Donald Trump came close to suggesting the US might unilaterally withdraw from Nato if other member states failed to dramatically increase their spending on the military bloc.

He caused chaos on Thursday by saying the US would “go it alone” if European states failed to boost their spending to at least 2% of GDP by January.

And the threat worked… 

But at an emergency press conference later, Trump appeared to change his mind, claiming Nato members had agreed to commit an extra $33bn (£25bn). He said it had been “a little tough for a little while” -  he told the Europeans he would be “very unhappy” if they did not up their spending “substantially”.

But he said a “tremendous amount of progress” had been made.   Nato was now “much stronger” he added, with spending “rocketing” upwards.


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