Estonia defends NATO contribution after Trump comments

Published July 21, 2016 3:32pm ET



The president of Estonia took to Twitter on Thursday to defend its role in NATO after Donald Trump said he may not come to allies’ aid as president if they didn’t pay enough for their own defense.

President Toomas Hendrick Ilves said that Estonia is one of only five NATO allies that meets the goal set two years ago to spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense. He also pointed out that Estonia fought “with no caveats” in Afghanistan when the U.S. invoked Article 5, which requires NATO allies to respond to an attack on one country as if they themselves had been attacked.

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