THIERRY CHARLIER/AFP/Getty Images(BRUSSELS) — President Trump will meet with the leaders of NATO Thursday, despite his past criticism of the alliance as “obsolete.”
The president’s Brussels meeting with the leaders will be the fourth stop on his inaugural overseas trip. Monday night’s deadly terrorist attack in Manchester brings new urgency to the summit, where the fight against terror was already a key item on the agenda.
Ahead of the meeting, White House officials stressed that the president would continue pressing members of NATO to adjust their defense spending to meet the Wales pledge — at least two percent of their GDP.
During the campaign, the president cited cost-sharing and what he believed as NATO’s lack of focus on terrorism as reason for calling it “obsolete.”
“What I’m saying is NATO is obsolete,” Trump told ABC in an interview in March of 2016, “and it’s extremely expensive for the United States, disproportionately so. And we should readjust NATO. And it’s going to have to be either readjusted to take care of terrorism or we’re going to have to set up … a new coalition.”
Trump backtracked on his campaign rhetoric following his inauguration, declaring in an April 11 press conference alongside NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that his mind had changed about the alliance.
“I said it was obsolete,” Trump said. “It’s no longer obsolete.”
Unity will surely be the focus in President Trump’s marathon of meetings. In addition to his first meeting with newly-elected French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump will also co-host the unveiling of a memorial at the entrance to NATO with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The memorial will include a section of the steel wreckage of the World Trade Center towers, which recognizing the Article 5 collective defense treaty which was activated following the 9/11 attacks.
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