US President Donald Trump hailed a personal victory at a Nato summit on Thursday, saying allies had sharply increased defence spending commitments after he provoked a crisis session with a tirade at European leaders.
โI told people that I would be very unhappy if they didnโt up their commitments,โ an ebullient president told reporters after the second day of the Brussels meeting, when Nato leaders huddled with Trump to try to defuse a crisis.
โI let them know that I was extremely unhappy,โ he said, but added that the talks had ended on the best of terms: โIt all came together at the end. It was a little tough for a little while.โ
Officials at the meeting said Trump had shocked many present and broke with diplomatic protocol by addressing German Chancellor Merkel by her first name, telling her: โAngela, you need to do something about thisโ. Most officials and the invited leaders of non-Nato Afghanistan and Georgia were ushered out.
Others in the room, including the Lithuanian president whose country is among the most nervous of Russian ambitions, denied a suggestion that Trump had threatened to quit the alliance.
When asked about that, Trump said he believed he could do that without Congressional approval but it was โnot necessaryโ.
Instead, he said, the other 28 allies had agreed to increase their defence spending more quickly to meet a Nato target of two per cent of their national income within a few years. The current commitment is to reach two per cent by 2024 but with get-out terms that would allow some to stretch it out to 2030.
Trump stressed that Natoโs budget had been unfair to the United States but now he was sure it would be fair. Allies would be increasing spending by $33bn or more, he added.
He also said he thought spending of 4 per cent on defence โ similar to the US level โ would be the right level.
โTOTAL CREDIT TO MEโ
โWe have a very powerful, very strong Nato, much stronger than it was two days ago,โ he said. Citing the allianceโs Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, he said: โSecretary Stoltenberg gives us total credit, meaning me, I guess, in this case, total credit. Because I said it was unfair.โ
โThe numbers have gone up like a rocket ship โฆ and theyโre going to be going up further,โ he said. โEverybody in that room got along and they agreed to pay more and they agreed to pay it more quickly.โ
Merkel said: โWe had a very intense summit.โ
Trump had opened the first day of talks in Brussels on Wednesday with a public diatribe against Germany, the second biggest state in the Western defence alliance, criticising its reliance on Russian gas imports and failure to spend more on defence.
The mood had appeared to have calmed as the summit went into its second day, focusing on operations beyond Europe. But, several sources said, Trump instead reopened in strong terms his demand that other countries spend more immediately.
โThe language was much tougher today,โ one source told Reuters. โHis harshest words were directed at Germany, including by calling her Angela โโYou, Angela.’โ
As well as Merkel, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Charles Michel, the prime minister of Belgium, were singled out by Trump for undershooting on their spending targets when US taxpayers, funding a defence budget worth about 3.6 per cent of their national income, foot much of Natoโs bills.
