DNA
\nBRUSSELS
\nNATO leaders held emergency talks at their summit on Thursday after US President Donald Trump demanded allies immediately increase defence spending, throwing the meeting into crisis.
\nSecretary General Jens Stoltenberg called an extraordinary session of NATO\u2019s ruling North Atlantic Council after Trump repeated demands for allies to spend more on their militaries, singling out Germany for special criticism.
\nDiplomatic sources told media that Trump used a meeting between the 29 NATO leaders and the presidents of Ukraine and Georgia to repeat for countries to meet a spending target of two percent of GDP immediately, instead of by 2024, and to eventually double spending to four percent.
\nAfter an opening day of summit talks marked by clashes between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, NATO leaders had hoped to focus on policy on Ukraine and Afghanistan. But just days out from a high-stakes meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the mercurial US leader threw the transatlantic alliance into disarray.
\n\u201cTrump took advantage of his speaking time to return to the issue of burden sharing\u201d during the Ukraine and Georgia meeting, a diplomatic source told media, prompting Stoltenberg to call the special talks.
\n\u201cTrump pointed to several countries, especially Germany,\u201d the source said, adding that the US president used \u201chard language, with repeated references to Germany\u201d and even to the German chancellor, \u201ccalling her Angela\u201d.
\nAnother diplomatic source confirmed that a \u201cspecial session on burden sharing is ongoing.\u201d The sources refused to comments on reports that Trump threatened to pull the US out of NATO if his demands were not met.
\nThe drama came after Trump renewed his criticism of European allies on Twitter, repeating the demand he made Wednesday for NATO members to double their defence spending target. Trump complained that Germany and other NATO allies \u201cpay only a fraction\u201d of the cost of defending Europe, leaving the US to pick up the tab.
\n\u201cGermany just started paying Russia, the country they want protection from, Billions of Dollars for their Energy needs coming out of a new pipeline from Russia. Not acceptable! All NATO Nations must meet their 2% commitment, and that must ultimately go to 4%!\u201d Trump tweeted.
\nTrump\u2019s demand on Wednesday to double the defence spending target rattled allies, with Bulgarian President Rumen Radev saying that \u201cNATO is not a stock exchange where you can buy security\u201d.
\nNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that he would \u201cfocus on what we have agreed\u201d on meeting the two-percent target, rather than addressing Trump\u2019s four percent demand.
\nThursday\u2019s talks will focus on Ukraine and Afghanistan, where NATO maintains a training and support mission to help local forces fight the resurgent Taliban. Trump has explicitly linked NATO with a transatlantic trade row by saying the EU shut out US business while expecting America to defend it, singling out Germany for particular criticism.
\nEurope\u2019s biggest economy spends just 1.24 percent of its GDP on defence, compared with 3.5 percent for the US. Trump has taken particular exception to the proposed Nord Stream II gas pipeline, which is set to run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
\nMerkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, shot back that she knew what it meant to be under Kremlin domination and was glad a united Germany was now able to \u201cmake our own independent policies and make our own independent decisions\u201d.
\nEuropean diplomats had feared a repeat of last month\u2019s divisive G7 in Canada, when Trump clashed with his Western allies before meeting Kim Jong UN at a summit, where he praised the North Korean leader as \u201cvery talented\u201d.
\nTrump will meet Putin in Helsinki on July 16 for their first summit amid an ongoing US investigation into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia. There have been fears that Trump, keen to be seen to make a breakthrough with the Kremlin strongman, might make concessions that would weaken Western unity over issues like Ukraine and Syria.
\nTrump heads to Britain on Thursday, where the government is in crisis over Brexit and where tensions with Russia have spiked after London blamed Moscow for the death this month of a British woman from contact with the Novichok nerve agent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DNA BRUSSELS NATO leaders held emergency talks at their summit on Thursday after US President Donald Trump demanded allies immediately increase defence spending, throwing the meeting into crisis. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called an extraordinary session of NATO\u2019s ruling North Atlantic Council after Trump repeated demands for allies to spend more on their militaries, singling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-28266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n