NATO Faced Collapse in 2018 as Trump Planned Withdrawal
According to the English section of webangah News Agency, citing Mehr News Agency and Russia Today, Jens Stoltenberg, former NATO Secretary General, stated that the U.S.-led military alliance was on the verge of collapse during Donald Trump’s first presidential term.
In his forthcoming autobiography titled “Under My Command,” Stoltenberg recalls that ahead of the 2018 NATO summit in Brussels, then-President Trump complained that the United States paid 80 to 90 percent of the alliance’s costs and declared he would no longer continue doing so.He threatened to pull out of NATO.
Stoltenberg quoted Trump saying: “Look, if we leave, we really leave. You desperately need NATO. We don’t need NATO.”
The former Secretary General added that if America had exited this military bloc, “the alliance would have died.”
During a similar statement at that same summit, Trump said America did not need NATO and would “do its own thing” unless European members raised their defense spending to 2 percent of GDP. He also threatened withdrawal by declaring there was ”no reason for me to stay here anymore.”
Trump’s stance fueled fears about a potential collapse of the alliance. Stoltenberg noted that then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron tried to ease tensions while then-Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte-now current NATO Secretary General-highlighted an increase in European defense spending by $33 billion, successfully convincing Trump to remain.
According to Stoltenberg, Trump agreed to stay on condition that this boost in military spending be publicly credited as his achievement.
Stoltenberg further explained that had Trump left, both NATO and its security guarantees would have become meaningless. He emphasized this episode underscored how dependent NATO remains on U.S.participation.
Moscow has consistently expressed concern regarding increased militarization by NATO in recent years and has repeatedly described the alliance’s eastward expansion toward Europe’s borders as one of the main causes behind the Ukraine crisis.kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated that NATO is “informally at war with Russia.”
