TRUMP: Have they fulfilled their obligations to us?
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Mr. Pence said he hadn’t seen the exact context of Mr. Trump’s comments, but he said Mr. Trump’s broader position is that it’s time for USA allies in treaty obligations and NATO to start paying their fair share – a point Mr. Trump has made before. Eight years of Barack Obama have weakened America’s defense capacities overseas, but the president has at least stood by North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
The Huntsville dentist proudly cast his convention vote for Rubio – as required based on results of the March 1 primary – but he was far outnumbered by the state’s 36 Donald Trump delegates. As president, would he come to their aid?
“Let me just reassure you, and reassure everyone on that point – I think that Article Five in the Nato Treaty of 1948, the doctrine of mutual defence, is incredibly important”.
Like President Barack Obama, Trump has called on members of the alliance to increase the amount of money they pay for United States military protection.
“You can’t forget the bills”, he told the Times.
“The cornerstone of that alliance is the pledge that all of the allies have made to mutual self-defense”, Earnest said.
Donald Trump recently gave an interview that revealed the presidential candidate’s outlook on NATO and changes that he wanted to make to the treaty. That’s a big thing. Some people say that it was staged, you know that. He rattled the world by casually telling reporters he might not fulfill USA treaty obligations.
In response to this, the Wall Street Journal reported that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issued a statement saying, “I will not interfere in the USA election campaign, but what I can do is say what matters for NATO”.
He said: it if our allies keep to their commitments (hear an echo Senator Cruz?), we will defend them. “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”.
Just two days after being blasted by the American media for labelling the US President “part Kenyan”, he said out was clear from the “last few days” the “admiration for the United Kingdom that exists around the world”. But they also stoked the debate over cost sharing after years in which Europe had been slow to meet its commitments on military spending. “We have these alliances not because we’re charitable, but because they’re in our interests”, Sen. “That’s what makes them allies”.
The pledge has only been invoked once in the group’s 56-year-history – in defence of the U.S. after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“It is fair to assume that Vladimir Putin is rooting for a Trump presidency”, said Jake Sullivan, a senior Clinton policy adviser.
“We are going to take care of this country first”, the Republican presidential nominee said, “before we worry about everyone else in the world”.
Russian chessmaster Garry Kasparov, an outspoken critic of Putin and Trump, observed that Trump and allies inside the Republican party changed language in the platform ahead of this week’s convention in Cleveland that weakened the official support for arming Ukraine: “The Trump staff got the language changed to ‘appropriate assistance, ‘ a meaningfully meaningless phrase that no doubt pleased Putin very much”.
Still, some experts downplayed Trump’s comments, even as they criticized them. Pentagon officials have griped for years that only a handful of the 28 members in the alliance meet their spending commitments – and that Europe’s wealthiest powers, including France and Germany, do not.
“The mightiest military alliance in history is only 11 weeks into an operation against a poorly armed regime in a sparsely populated country – yet many allies are beginning to run short of munitions, requiring the USA, once more, to make up the difference”, Gates charged then in Brussels.
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US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Mr Erdogan to follow the rule of law, amid a crackdown on opposition figures by the Turkish leader in the wake of the coup attempt.
