President Trump will discuss defense spending, relations with Russia and the need for stronger international cooperation to deter and defeat the Islamic State and other extremist groups during a meeting with the top civilian leader of NATO on Wednesday.
The president and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will huddle at the White House, just days after several members of the Western military alliance rallied behind Trump’s decision to strike Syria in retaliation for the Bashar Assad regime’s chemical weapons attack.
On several occasions during his presidential campaign, Trump described NATO as “obsolete” and demanded that other members increase their financial contributions. The president has since said he is “100 percent commitment” to the alliance.
“I don’t anticipate it will be an awkward discussion,” said one senior White House official. “I think the secretary general has made clear that he also intends to get allies to shoulder a greater burden of the investment and so [they] are likely to see eye-to-eye on that issue.”
All 28 members of NATO agreed in 2014 to raise their defense budgets over the coming decade and strive to spend a minimum of 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. However, several countries have fallen short on that agreement.
Trump and Stoltenberg will review ways to get the allies to take on their “fair share of the collective defense of the North Atlantic region,” the official said.
Another priority will be to discuss the current strategy to address the most acute security threats that face NATO allies, White House officials said. These include North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, the escalating Syrian conflict, and the Islamic State’s insertion of operatives throughout refugee communities in Europe.
Trump and Stoltenberg will hold a joint White House press conference at 4 p.m. ET. They will meet again in Brussels next month for a periodic summit of NATO leaders.
