Trump said he would force allies to shoulder defense costs that the United States has borne for decades, cancel longstanding treaties he views as unfavorable, and redefine what it means to be a partner of the United States.
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Ojars Eriks Kalnins, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Latvia’s Parliament, called Trump’s comments “dangerous”. Ana Catuna, adviser to the former minister of foreign affairs of Romania, tells The Washington Post’s Right Turn, “NATO is one of the few institutions that bond America and Europe together”.
He went further in the latest interview, however.
“I want to reassure our North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies that if any of them get attacked, we’ll be there to defend them”. “If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes”.
Trump’s comments prompted an outcry from politicians and policy experts on both sides of the aisle, who warned that the USA couldn’t go back on its word.
The liberation of Mosul, which USA officials say contains about 1 million civilians, is expected to be the most hard military operation of the fight in Iraq.
Campaign manager Paul Manafort initially suggested Trump had been misquoted, but a transcript released by the newspaper matched quotations attributed to the candidate.
His son Eric Trump then mounted a staunch defense of the candidate’s comments.
But Earnest acknowledged that Obama believes Europe needs to pay its “fair share”.
“SANGER: That’s true, but we are treaty-obligated under NATO, forget the bills part”.
The foreign policy flap drew a scathing rebuke from the campaign of Hillary Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival.
Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the idea of Russian Federation attacking “anyone” was “unnecessary” and “hypothetical”. He suggested Trump has “a weird and occasionally obsequious fascination with Russia’s strongman”.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was more forgiving.
Stoltenberg: I have to relate to the decisions taken by the United States, the administration and the Congress, and what we have seen is a will of the United States to live up to all its commitments and to increase its presence in Europe.
Still, some experts downplayed Trump’s comments, even as they criticized them.
Some ended their public silence Thursday, however.
“Russia is handing that perfectly”, Peskov said.
“It’s the end of NATO”, Robert Hunter, a former USA ambassador to the alliance under President Bill Clinton, told Reuters. “We defend one another”.
Sajjan noted Trump’s comments were made during an election campaign in the USA, though he wouldn’t say whether he thought they were simply election rhetoric. “That’s what makes them allies”.
Ilves wrote that Estonian troops had fought “with no caveats” alongside USA forces in Afghanistan, where the post-Sept. The section has been invoked only once in the alliance’s 66-year history and that was in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. “The United States has always stood by its European allies”.
“Statements like these make the world more risky and the United States less safe”, said Graham, a Seneca Republican who withdrew from the GOP presidential nominating race late a year ago.
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“Mr. Trump has shown the ability to correct statements such as this”, Graham said”.
