LISTEN TO TLR’S LATEST PODCAST:
President Donald Trump has fully committed to NATO and has promised to uphold Article 5 after declining to do so at the NATO summit last year.
“I’m committing the U.S. to Article 5,” Trump said Friday, during a joint news conference with Klaus Iohannis, the president of Romania.
Wall Street Journal reports:
“Mr. Trump’s omission last month of any public statement in support of NATO’s common-defense provision, known as Article 5, left European diplomats dismayed. National security adviser Gen. H.R. McMaster said at the time that there was no decision to include or not include a commitment in Mr. Trump’s Brussels speech, made at the dedication of a NATO memorial devoted to Article 5.”
Trump has not been consistent on his stance about NATO. During the election, he called NATO obsolete in January, just days before he took office. Then, after a meeting with NATO leaders in April, he reversed his stance.
“I complained about that a long time ago, and they made a change — and now they do fight terrorism,” Trump said. “I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete.”
He has also been critical of NATO countries who do not meet the 2 percent guidelines, which state that each member country should use 2 percent of their GDP for defense. Currently, only five countries meet the 2 percent guidelines. However, by the end of this year, that number should raise to eight.
WATCH TLR’S LATEST VIDEO:
