PNN – Washington threatened that if NATO member countries do not take action on defense spending, US President Donald Trump will not attend the military alliance’s June summit in The Hague, Netherlands.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network, Der Spiegel magazine reported, citing European diplomatic sources, that Matthew Whitaker, the US representative to NATO, has warned that Trump may not attend the upcoming NATO summit if other members of the defense alliance do not take action on burden-sharing.
According to the report, Germany is particularly under pressure to significantly increase its defense spending, and US Defense Secretary Pete Hegsted spoke to his German counterpart Boris Pistorius about the matter last week.
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The report comes as Whitaker told Newsmax television on Thursday: NATO’s European members will take steps to manage more defense spending. America is not going to leave Europe. But at the same time, we have to equalize.
He added: Europeans understand the importance of paying more for their sovereignty. We must ensure that our European allies, as President Trump always says, pay their fair share, and we will see significant developments in the run-up to the June summit.
According to Whitaker, the United States has demanded that many NATO countries sign new support agreements and commit to more spending before the June summit in The Hague.
About 45 heads of state and government, including Donald Trump and many European leaders, as well as about 90 foreign and defense ministers, will attend next month’s NATO summit, which Dutch officials say will be the largest ever held in the country.
This will be the first NATO summit under Secretary General Mark Rutte, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, following the end of the presidency of Jens Stoltenberg (former NATO Secretary General).