President Trump spoke with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday evening and agreed to join a meeting of NATO leaders in May in Europe.
Trump and Stoltenberg discussed “how to encourage all NATO allies to meet their defense spending commitments,” according to a readout of the call provided by the White House.
{mosads}They also discussed the conflict along the Ukrainian border and the White House said Trump spoke about “the United States’ strong support for NATO.”
During the campaign, Trump drew backlash when he said he’d look at whether NATO allies have “fulfilled their obligations to us” before deciding whether to defend them if they are attacked, as the treaty mandates.
He also repeatedly called NATO obsolete, saying it should do more to fight terrorism.
He repeated that criticism last month in an interview with a German newspaper.
“It’s obsolete, first because it was designed many, many years ago,” Trump was quoted as saying about NATO. “Secondly, countries aren’t paying what they should” and NATO “didn’t deal with terrorism.”