Trump repeats attack on Germany on second day of Nato summit - Financial Times

July 12, 2018

Trump repeats attack on Germany on second day of Nato summit
US ‘pays tens of Billions of Dollars too much to subsidize Europe’, president writes on Twitter

Donald Trump is approached by British prime minister Theresa May at dinner on Wednesday on the first day of the Nato summit © AP

Demetri Sevastopulo and Michael Peel in Brussels 2 HOURS AGO Print this page13
Donald Trump has launched another stinging attack on Germany on the second day of the Nato summit in Brussels, singling out Berlin for not spending more on defence.

“Presidents have been trying unsuccessfully for years to get Germany and other rich NATO Nations to pay more toward their protection from Russia. They pay only a fraction of their cost. The U.S. pays tens of Billions of Dollars too much to subsidize Europe, and loses Big on Trade!” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning.

The renewed attack came the day after the US president stunned leaders at the annual Nato summit by saying Germany was “captive” to Moscow because of its Russian gas imports, in televised remarks that Mr Trump would have known would be widely broadcast.

In his early Thursday morning posts on Twitter, Mr Trump repeated his criticism that Nato was protecting its members from Russia while Germany was paying Moscow “billions of dollars” for gas imports. “Not acceptable!” he said.

Mr Trump also repeated calls for Nato members to go beyond a commitment to spend 2 per cent of gross domestic product on defence — a target agreed by the alliance in 2014 — and to boost spending to 4 per cent. Mr Trump made a similar demand at last year’s Nato summit and again in private on Wednesday. The White House said the call for 4 per cent spending, even more than the US spends now, was not a formal proposal.

Nato members had played down tensions on Wednesday but the US president was widely condemned for the way he had attacked Germany in public. At a press conference Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary-general, highlighted some of the issues that the alliance members had agreed in a declaration. “For a quarter of a century, many of our countries have been cutting billions from their [defence] budgets, now they are adding billions,” he said.

John Kerry, the former US secretary of state, described Mr Trump’s comments as “disgraceful [and] destructive”. His criticism echoed the views of many foreign policy experts and officials who agree that Nato needs to spend more but argue that the alliance must demonstrate unity, particularly to avoid playing into the hands of Russia.

“What was on display in Brussels today was not the behaviour of a strong, principled, and wise leader. Enough,” Mr Kerry said on Wednesday.

After lambasting Germany on Wednesday morning, Mr Trump later told reporters who were allowed briefly to attend his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that relations between the two countries were “tremendous”.

The US president also reportedly avoided antagonising the other 28 Nato leaders at the official summit dinner on Wednesday evening. According to one European diplomat, Mr Trump was very polite, although some of the guests had been braced for the US president to erupt at any moment.

Merkel defends Germany's freedoms at Nato meeting

The diplomat said “no one wanted to rock the boat” and the other leaders had “massaged” Mr Trump by focusing on questions about his recent summit with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un.

Mr Trump will hold private meetings with the leaders of Azerbaijan, Romania, Ukraine and Georgia, before leaving Brussels for the UK, where he will spend three days before travelling to Helsinki for his first formal summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Follow Demetri Sevastopulo and Michael Peel on Twitter: @dimi and @mikepeeljourno