Donald Trump believes that NATO countries should be asked to make a greater contribution to the collective defense of the alliance in the light of threats from Russia and China – reports the British daily “The Times”.
“He intends to ask member states to increase it defense spending to 3%. GDPas the price of the continued US commitment to the defense of Europe,” we read.
FOR THIS. Will Donald Trump make new demands?
As the daily reports, citing a source close to Trump, the former US president “is leaning towards a new goal (…) at the price of a continued commitment to defend Europeif he returns to power after the November elections.
Donald Trump had it this way take up the president's initiative Andrzej Duda on increasing the threshold for defense spending from 2 to 3 percent GDPwhich he released just before his March visit to the White House.
According to Trump's team, Duda's idea was also there one of the main topics of conversation both politicians during the recent visit of the Polish president to New York.
“(Trump's) thinking is evolving towards 3 percent, especially after the conversation with Duda – and this is not counting the money for Ukrainy“- says the newspaper's informant. “The Times” points out that such a requirement would be troublesome for many European countriesconsidering the fact that currently only three NATO countries spend more than 3% on defense. GDP (Poland, USA and Greece).
The daily also notes that during the visit to Poland British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced increased spendingbut only to the level of 2.5%, and in the perspective of 2030.
According to the newspaper Trump's meeting with Duda it also played a key role in persuading the former US president to drop his opposition to the long-delayed aid package for Kiev worth $60 billion.
The Times' source also argues that Trump actually has – as the former president claims – a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but he doesn't want to betray him so as not to lose influence on the situation.
Donald Trump and NATO. Controversial words
Donald Trump himself said in a recent interview with Time magazine will try to help Ukraine, but Europe must do the same. He spoke about NATO in a similar way.
He claimed, among other things, that his statement that he would allow Russia “do whatever she wanted” with countries paying too little for defense was an attempt at negotiations and getting Europe to contribute more.
He also emphasized that he was not against the Alliance, but wanted Europe toshe paid her bills“.
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