(I'm in UK) - if we set aside what we theink of trump (hard to do but...) it's beyond argument that the US spends more on NATO than European countries do. It's hard to get straight $ numbers because defence spending is published but not actual NATO spend* (and US defence includes a lot of non-NATO (Israel for example). [* I mean I can't find data]
But it's a fact that Europe needed a wake-up. Russia's invasion shook Europe out of complacency, but Europe does need to accept a new state of unrest on it's Eastern borders.
Important to note that US is World's biggest arms maker by far, and NATO is its biggest customer (by far). trump is (IMO) fairly despicable in many ways but he's also transactional - he must surely know that his biggest arms customer is NATO.
I suspect what he said was music to the ears of his poorly informed following, but was also a wake-up call the Europe by way of a threatening sales pitch.
We need to see how united Europe is and can be - because the EU alone (and we in UK are not EU of course but are a part of European defence alliances including NATO) is massively stronger than russia - economic, manpower, technology.
Putin punches above his weight - his economy is smaller than Italy's. He's struggled to resource a war with Ukraine.
Excellent Olga!
Interesting Trump wants NATO allies to ‘pay up’ from a man who notoriously stiffs everyone!
(I'm in UK) - if we set aside what we theink of trump (hard to do but...) it's beyond argument that the US spends more on NATO than European countries do. It's hard to get straight $ numbers because defence spending is published but not actual NATO spend* (and US defence includes a lot of non-NATO (Israel for example). [* I mean I can't find data]
But it's a fact that Europe needed a wake-up. Russia's invasion shook Europe out of complacency, but Europe does need to accept a new state of unrest on it's Eastern borders.
Important to note that US is World's biggest arms maker by far, and NATO is its biggest customer (by far). trump is (IMO) fairly despicable in many ways but he's also transactional - he must surely know that his biggest arms customer is NATO.
I suspect what he said was music to the ears of his poorly informed following, but was also a wake-up call the Europe by way of a threatening sales pitch.
We need to see how united Europe is and can be - because the EU alone (and we in UK are not EU of course but are a part of European defence alliances including NATO) is massively stronger than russia - economic, manpower, technology.
Putin punches above his weight - his economy is smaller than Italy's. He's struggled to resource a war with Ukraine.
Let's get all this in perspective.
Exactly! He doesn’t care about NATO payments. His only objective is to bring an end to the alliance