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The foreseeable Republican candidate for the presidency of the United States, Donald Trump, has maintained that he will "encourage" Russia to "do whatever the hell it wants" against any NATO country that, in his opinion, does not spend enough on collective defense.
His comments have triggered alarm and condemnation among allies who are still very aware of the threats against the Alliance, and the demands for its members to increase their contributions, which the then president multiplied during his term.
In Brussels, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, accused him without naming him of “undermining the security” of those nations.
In statements during a rally in South Carolina, Trump alluded to an alleged conversation during his presidency (2017-2021) with the leader of a “great country” in NATO, who asked him what would happen if they did not pay and Russia attacked them.
“I said: 'Don't they pay?
What are creditors?
No, I'm not going to protect them.
In fact, I'm going to encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want.
They have to pay.
“They have to pay their bills.”
Throughout his meeting with South Carolina voters, before the primaries in that State that could end up sealing Trump's designation as the official Republican candidate in the November elections, the former president - always as critical of the Alliance as warm with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin - he expanded on his criticisms against NATO.
“(The institution) was on the back foot until I arrived,” he stated.
And he recalled that during his mandate he made it very clear to the member countries that “everyone has to pay.”
On Sunday, far from backing down, he saw his own bet and doubled it on social networks: “no money in the form of foreign aid should be given to any country except if it is done as a loan, not as a donation,” he wrote in capital letters on its Social Truth.
“We don't have to give any more money,” she argued, “with no hope of getting it back, or without 'conditions' imposed.”
Trump's comments plunge the Alliance into a US election campaign overflowing with animosity.
And they have reopened uncertainty in Europe about the future of a key institution in post-war transatlantic relations if the real estate magnate returns to the White House, and how reliable the United States may be as a partner.
The Republican candidate has promised to “fundamentally reevaluate” the “purpose and mission” of NATO if he is elected president again.
Something that particularly worries Russia's neighboring European countries: Finland, Poland and the Baltic states Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
“Any suggestion that NATO allies would not defend each other undermines the entire security of the Alliance and puts American and European soldiers at risk,” Stoltenberg said in a statement.
“Any attack on NATO will receive a united and forceful response,” the Norwegian diplomat concluded.
In Warsaw, the Polish Defense Minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, warned on social networks that “no electoral campaign merits playing with the security of the Alliance.”
“NATO's motto 'all for one, one for all' is a concrete commitment,” he recalled.
Spending 2% of GDP on defense
Trump's words come precisely in the midst of a debate in the Alliance about the percentage that allies dedicate to defense which, according to Wales' commitment - in 2014 - is 2% of GDP.
The allies agreed at the Vilnius (Lithuania) summit last July to sail further.
Stoltenberg repeats, for example, that this figure should be the floor and not the ceiling.
However, only some of its 31 allies (Finland was the last to join, in April 2023) dedicate 2%, although spending has increased after Russia's war against Ukraine.
Spain, for example, dedicates 1.3% of GDP to military spending and plans to reach 2% in 2029. Meanwhile, it dedicates 29% to investments in capabilities (the agreement in Wales is 20%) and makes substantial contributions to missions, diplomatic sources explain.
All within the debate about whether the contribution to allied security should be measured more clearly and publicly by pointing to different variables.
Defense spending amid warning calls from European leaders about a long war in Ukraine and the Russian threat — some, like Belgium, have even talked about returning to the reservist system — will be debated Thursday during the meeting of NATO Defense Ministers, in Brussels, which, without a doubt, will be marked by Trump's new outburst of tone.
The former president has also spoken out when US aid to Ukraine, which that country urgently needs to try to repel the Russian invasion, has been stuck in Congress in Washington for months.
The Senate is trying to approve an extraordinary budget item that includes $61 billion for its ally, and this Sunday it took a new step forward in a procedural vote.
Even if the Upper House ends up giving the green light to the bill, it is unknown what the House of Representatives will do, where the refusal of Republican legislators to dedicate more funds to that war is much greater.
Trump, who maintains increasingly firm control of his party in Congress, has repeatedly declared himself opposed to continuing assistance to kyiv.
Some NATO members have expressed fear that if the United States turns its back on the ally it has promised to help “with whatever it takes, as long as it takes,” Putin will be encouraged to attack other countries after Ukraine.
The Biden Administration has multiplied its pressure on Congress and its contacts with allies in recent weeks to try to advance assistance to the invaded country.
On Friday, the American president met at the White House with German Chancellor Olaf Scholtz, with whom he agreed to maintain support for kyiv.
A week earlier, Stoltenberg himself had traveled to Washington.
A week ago, Biden, who met with the leaders of both parties in Congress in January to press for these funds, appeared before the cameras to demand that legislators approve the assistance item.
Since his inauguration in 2021, the US president has sought to give guarantees to NATO about the US's commitment to the institution.
Last month he signed a new defense law that prohibits any president from ordering a unilateral exit from the Alliance.
In a statement, the White House harshly criticized Trump's comments: “Encouraging murderous regimes to invade our closest allies is deplorable and deranged.
“It endangers the national security of the United States, global stability and our economy,” said spokesman Andrew Bates.
Trump's statements introduce a new factor in the disputed US elections, where the population originating from European states neighboring Russia has enough specific weight to decide the result in several pivotal states.
The
Politico
website recalls that Biden won Pennsylvania in 2020 by 82,116 votes, 1.18%, and the Polish, Finnish and Baltic population there totals 900,000 people.
The same as in Michigan, where the president won by 154,181 votes, 2.78%.
In Wisconsin, which the Democrat won by 20,682 votes, or 0.63%, they represent half a million.
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