The German publication Der Spiegel learned about threats from the American side that US President Donald Trump may not come to the NATO summit in June if members of the Alliance do not take any action to allocate money for defense by that time, while the US demands to bring them to 5% of GDP, writes UNN.
Details
According to the publication, for some time now, military officials of German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius have been sending alarming messages to Berlin from NATO headquarters in Brussels. Confidential reports often focus on Matthew Whitaker, Trump's appointed ambassador to NATO. In each round, he demands: NATO partners must finally agree to spend not only two, but five percent of their GDP on defense in the future, the publication notes. Five percent is approximately 215 billion euros for Germany
"At first, the Germans thought that the Americans were not entirely serious about the five percent, that it was just a negotiating tactic. Now they take Whitaker at his word. Even when he threatened that Trump would not come to the summit in June if other NATO countries did not take any action to allocate money by that time," the publication says.
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