President Trump set to meet Nato leaders

President Donald Trump is set to meet Nato leaders for potentially fractious talks at a summit in Brussels on Wednesday.

Ahead of his visit, Mr Trump hit out at the EU on trade and at his Nato allies for failing to spend enough on defence.

He was met with a sharp rebuke from European Council President Donald Tusk, who accused the president of criticising Europe "almost daily".

"Dear America, appreciate your allies, after all you don't have that many."

Mr. Tusk added that the EU spent more than Russia on defence, and as much as China.

He said the US did not and would not have a better ally than the EU, reminding the president that it was European troops who had fought and died in Afghanistan after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dear <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">@realDonaldTrump</a>. US doesn’t have and won’t have a better ally than EU. We spend on defense much more than Russia and as much as China. I hope you have no doubt this is an investment in our security, which cannot be said with confidence about Russian & Chinese spending :-)</p>— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) <a href="https://twitter.com/eucopresident/status/1016627917915348993?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">July 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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For his part, President Trump predicted that the Nato meeting could be harder than his summit with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Finland next Monday.

President Trump has claimed the US is being "taken advantage of" by other members of the Nato alliance, which was set up in 1949 to counter the Soviet Union.

His main objection is that a number of member states have not increased their defence budgets to meet a 2014 goal.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Many countries in NATO, which we are expected to defend, are not only short of their current commitment of 2% (which is low), but are also delinquent for many years in payments that have not been made. Will they reimburse the U.S.?</p>— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1016729137409486853?ref_src=twsrc^tfw">July 10, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Nato figures released on Tuesday showed the extent of the shortfall, with 24 of Nato's 29 members forecast to fall below the alliance's target of spending 2% of GDP on defence in 2018.

The US currently spends more than 3.5% of its GDP on defence. Among European members, Greece, the UK and Estonia spend over 2%.

Washington pays about 22% of Nato's running costs - but European officials say just 15% of America's overall defence spending happens in Europe on Nato business.

SOURCE: BBC News
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