Trump warns NATO members: if they do not invest in defense, USA will not defend them

The US president, Donald Trump, warned NATO members on Thursday that if they do not invest in their own defense, the United States will not defend them.

EFE

Speaking to the press at the White House, Trump said that NATO members still do not pay enough, and said he has communicated to other countries that will not defend them if they are «delinquent» in their contributions.

As reported on Thursday the NBC chain, Trump is considering significantly modifying the way in which the United States participates in NATO.

Specifically, the president is evaluating the American commitment to the Alliance to favor countries that do comply with the commitments of defense spending, according to NBC, which cited three officials in office or who have left their post and Congress sources.

In his statements to the press, Trump did not explicitly mention these possible changes, although he reiterated his position that Washington will not protect countries that do not invest in their safety, something that would call into question the NATO collective defense commitment.

NATO has established as an objective that each member allocates at least 2 % of their GDP to Defense, a goal that does not yet turn eight of the 32 countries of the Alliance.

Trump recalled that, during his first term (2017-2021), he already warned the allies that the US would not defend them if they did not increase their defense expense.

According to him, that pressure made «hundreds of billions of dollars» be invested in security by several countries.

In his first term and in the current campaign for the November elections, Trump has openly questioned the principle of collective defense collected in article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which establishes that an attack against an NATO member is considered an attack against the entire organization.

The only country that has activated NATO’s common defense clause was the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.