WASHINGTON -- Presidential candidate Donald Trump set off alarm bells Thursday with a suggestion that a Trump administration would not automatically defend fellow members of NATO if they haven't lived up to their financial obligations.
Trump, in an interview published Wednesday in The New York Times, went beyond his earlier assertions that he might reconsider the U.S. role as one of 28 nations in NATO because many European countries are not spending enough on defense.
When asked if he would provide military aid to the Baltic countries if Russia were to attack, Trump replied, "If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes."
Trump was more vague when asked what he would do if the answer were no.
"Well, I'm not saying if not," he said. "I'm saying, right now there are many countries that have not fulfilled their obligations to us."
Asked whether the United States would go to the aid of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- three Baltic states that were invaded by the Soviet Union in 1940, and joined NATO in 2004 -- in the event of a Russian invasion, Trump replied, "I don't want to tell you what I'd do because I don't want Putin to know what I'd do," referring to Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, for whom Trump has expressed admiration.
Jens Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary-general and a former prime minister of Norway, said he "will not interfere in the U.S. election campaign" but made clear he was alarmed by Trump's remarks.
"Solidarity among allies is a key value for NATO," he said in a statement. "This is good for European security and good for U.S. security."
He added, "Two world wars have shown that peace in Europe is also important for the security of the United States."
Various U.S. administrations have complained, often bitterly, that many NATO members do not foot their share of the alliance's bills.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., a Trump supporter, told CBS This Morning on Thursday that NATO members should worry about the U.S. commitment, saying each country needs to "pay its fair share."
When asked about defending the security of countries such as Estonia, Gingrich said that he's not sure the U.S. should "risk a nuclear war over some place which is the suburbs of St. Petersburg. I think we have to think about what does this stuff mean."
Though U.S. administrations have for decades complained that Europe is getting a free ride, Trump's comments were a repudiation of Article 5, the heart of the alliance, that an attack on one is considered an attack on all. The only time Article 5 has been invoked was after the terrorist attacks against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and is the reason why European and Canadian troops were sent to Afghanistan. More than 1,000 non-U.S. troops died in Afghanistan.
This is not the first time Trump has criticized NATO, formed in 1949 by the United States, Canada and 10 European countries specifically to defend one another against the former Soviet Union. Trump's primary objection has been economic. Washington pays about a fifth of NATO's direct costs, more than any other country, and roughly 75 percent of all military spending, according to a 2015 NATO report.
In an interview with The Washington Post published March 21, Trump called NATO a "good thing to have," but said it was obsolete and no longer affordable in an era of large U.S. deficits.
"I don't want to pull it out," he said of U.S. membership, adding, "NATO was set up when we were a richer country. We're not a rich country. ... NATO is costing us a fortune and yes, we're protecting Europe but we're spending a lot of money. Number one, I think the distribution of costs has to be changed. I think NATO as a concept is good, but it is not as good as it was when it first evolved."
He made a similar argument at a CNN town-hall-style event.
"Frankly, they have to put up more money," he said. "We are paying disproportionately. It's too much, and frankly it's a different world than it was when we originally conceived of the idea."
Military spending by NATO allies has long been a bone of contention for U.S. officials. NATO members are expected to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. In fact, only five countries do, among them the United States. The others are the U.K., Estonia, Greece and Poland.
Europeans Dismayed
Trump's remarks provoked a swift rebuke from European capitals, the White House and leaders of the Republican's own party.
President Barack Obama's administration pushed back against the comments.
"There should be no mistake or miscalculation made about this country's commitment" to NATO, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Thursday in response to Trump's remarks in a New York Times interview. "The U.S. commitment to that pledge is ironclad."
Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed the United States' commitment to NATO.
"This administration, like every single administration, Republican and Democrat alike since 1949, remains fully committed to the NATO alliance and to our security commitments under Article 5, which is absolutely bedrock to our membership and to our partnership with NATO."
The most criticism came from the United States' NATO allies in Europe.
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves tweeted that his country was one of the few to meet the minimum defense expenditure and noted pointedly that Estonia "fought, with no caveats" on behalf of the U.S. in Afghanistan.
Ilves' fellow eastern European leaders sought to calm the furor.
"Regardless of who will be the president of America, we will trust in America," Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite told reporters in Vilnius. "It has always defended nations under attack, and will do so in the future."
Asked on Thursday about Trump's comments, Defense Secretary Michael Fallon of Britain snapped: "Article 5 is an absolute commitment. It doesn't come with conditions or caveats."
In Russia, Trump's comments met with approval. Alexei Pushkov, head of the foreign relations committee of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, contrasted Trump with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential candidate.
"Clinton's creed: strengthen the U.S.' anti-Russian alliances. Trump's creed: respond only to real threats," Pushkov wrote. "Aggressive banality versus common sense."
Republicans Respond
Back in the United States, criticism rained down from Trump's fellow Republicans while others worked to smooth over Trump's comments.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who backed Trump at the party's national convention, said he totally disagreed with the statement but was willing to "chalk it up to a rookie mistake."
Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said the U.S. would live up to its treaty obligations. He highlighted the $19 trillion in U.S. debt as a reason that allies need to "step up" and contribute more to NATO.
"I'm very confident that Donald Trump will stand by our allies," he said Thursday on Fox News. "But at the same time we're going to begin to say to allies around the world that the time has come for them and their citizens to begin to carry the financial costs of these international obligations."
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said: "I'm 100 percent certain how Russian President Putin feels -- he's a very happy man."
Some Republicans opposed to Trump have indeed sought to cast him as pro-Putin, a position that would put him at odds with both Republican and Democratic foreign policy and also diverge from the current GOP platform adopted at the convention.
Trump supporters succeeded in preventing a reference to arming Ukraine from getting into this year's platform, but the manifesto is demonstrably not pro-Russia. It accuses "current officials in the Kremlin" of eroding the "personal liberty and fundamental rights" of the Russian people."
"We will meet the return of Russian belligerence with the same resolve that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union," the Republican platform says. "We will not accept any territorial change in Eastern Europe imposed by force, in Ukraine, Georgia, or elsewhere, and will use all appropriate constitutional measures to bring to justice the practitioners of aggression and assassination."
Information for this article was contributed by Matthew Lee, Vivian Salama, Erica Werner, John-Thor Dahlberg, Liudas Dapkus, Jari Tanner, Matti Huuhtanen and Monika Scislowska of The Associated Press; by Carol Morello of The Washington Post; by Sewell Chan of The New York Times; and by Toluse Olorunnipa, Andy Sharp and Aaron Eglitis of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 07/22/2016