Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort did not dispute the quotes, saying they were consistent with the candidate’s desire to modernize the United States’ worldwide treaties.
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Alarm and condemnation erupted Thursday from European capitals, the White House and leaders of Donald Trump’s own party after the Republican presidential nominee suggested the United States might abandon its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military commitments if he were elected president.
Asked by the New York Times Wednesday whether the USA would immediately provide military aid to a Baltic nation if Russian Federation were to invade, Trump answered: “Have they fulfilled their obligation to us?”
Republican nominee Donald Trump hinted the USA may revisit NATO’s longstanding policy of defending its allies against possible Russian aggression if he becomes president, saying that some allies aren’t holding up their end of the bargain.
Back in the United States, criticism, including some from Trump’s fellow Republicans, was blistering. The U.S. has proven once again that it’s ready to defend and protect European allies. “Many NATO nations are not making payments, are not making what they’re supposed to make”, he said in reference to the 2 per cent GDP benchmark for defence spending, which is routinely not observed by most of the bloc’s members.
Trump previously said he would force allies to shoulder more of the defense costs that the United States has borne for decades, cancel long-standing treaties he considers unfavorable, and redefine what it means to be a partner of the United States.Stoltenberg said defense spending among European allies and Canada rose last year for the first time in many years.
The hint that Trump might not come to the rescue of the Baltic states was only one of the eyebrow-raising comments in the interview.
“More important is the net benefit the USA derives from the stability and security of the country and region affected and the price the US would pay if stability were to be lost or its interests undermined”, Haass told Reuters. “We defend each other”.
Mr Sullivan, said in a statement: “Trump has apparently decided that America lacks the moral authority to advance our interests and values around the world”.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who isn’t at the convention, said, “Statements like these make the world more risky and the United States less safe”.
Even Mr. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, took issue with part of Mr. Trump’s remarks, saying that “the phrase about Russian Federation even hypothetically attacking someone is unfortunate wording”.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican who was one of the losing candidates in the primaries, said that Putin should be “a very happy man” after Trump’s remarks.
“We have seen this in Afghanistan, where tens of thousands of European, Canadian, and partner nation troops have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with USA soldiers”, Stoltenberg said.
The reaction of Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite was one of disbelief that any US president would shirk treaty obligations.
Some Republicans opposed to Trump have sought to cast him as pro-Putin, a position that would put Trump at odds with both Republican and Democratic foreign policy experts and would diverge from the current GOP platform.
“I’ve been misquoted by the New York Times more than anybody else I know”.
At a Thursday event hosted by Politico and billed as “The New Republican Foreign Policy at the RNC”, Cotton nervously dodged questions related to Trump’s isolationist views on foreign policy-views that are the exact opposite of Cotton’s main policy agenda.
The treaty that formed the alliance in 1949 requires members to defend one another. “The United States always stood with nations which were under attack and it will continue doing so”.
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“Over the course of this campaign, Trump has displayed a weird and occasionally obsequious fascination with Russia’s strongman, Vladimir Putin”.
