President Trump on Friday declared he was “absolutely” committed to upholding Article V of the NATO treaty, which obligates allies to come to the defense of any member who comes under attack.
“I am committing the United States to Article V,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Friday. “Absolutely, I’d be committed to Article V.”
Trump’s posture towards NATO has been among his most controversial views after he vowed to push allies to increase defense spending even “if it breaks up NATO” and suggested the United States wouldn’t defend low-spending allies. Trump’s foreign policy team has conducted a world circuit to clarify for allies and adversaries that the United States would stand by its security commitments, but Trump had never previously offered an explicit endorsement of Article V.
“Certainly, we are there to protect,” Trump also said. “And that’s one of the reasons that I want people to make sure we have a very, very strong force by paying the kind of money necessary to have that force.”
Trump’s previous unwillingness to make that statement alarmed American and European leaders who were already worried about Russian aggression. Russian President Vladimir Putin authorized a surreptitious invasion of Ukraine, which is not a NATO ally but was provided a less formal security guarantee, while trying to intimidate other former Soviet countries.
“Our objective should be to strengthen NATO,” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said at the Republican National Convention in 2016, in response to Trump’s original NATO critique. “One way we can strengthen NATO is to get our European partners to spend the two percent [of GDP on defense]. … We also need to stand behind the Article V guarantee of NATO with every NATO member — not because we want to start a war with Russia, but precisely because we don’t.”
Trump tempered his critiques of NATO after his victory, although he was also uneven in praise for the alliance. “[C]ountries aren’t paying their fair share so we’re supposed to protect countries but a lot of these countries aren’t paying what they’re supposed to be paying, which I think is very unfair to the United States,” Trump told the Sunday Times, a British publication, a few days before his inauguration. “With that being said, NATO is very important to me.”
Trump’s uncertain public statements continued through his latest trip to Europe for a NATO summit last month. The president was expected to endorse the mutual defense obligations enshrined in the alliance treaty. His administration told reporters that he would make an explicit affirmation of Article V during a speech at the September 11 memorial at NATO headquarters in Europe, but he omitted that language from the speech, according to the reports. “We will never forsake the friends who stood by our side,” Trump said instead.
He was more direct on Friday. “I am committing the United States — and have committed — but I am committing the United States to Article V,” Trump said.
