French President: NATO is stronger after summit
(VOVWORLD) -French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that NATO is much stronger after a tense summit where US President Donald Trump demanded an increase in NATO’s defense spending.
French President Emmanuel Macron (Photo: Getty Images)
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Macron said discussions at the summit had a different tone and there was no lack of respect among members despite Trump’s earlier criticism on Twitter. Macron said Trump did not explicitly threaten to leave the 70-year-old alliance.
Some news agencies reported the US President had threatened to pull out of NATO out of frustration with some members’ lack of commitment to agreed goals, including spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. But Macron said Trump reaffirmed his commitment to making NATO stronger. He said Trump never told NATO leaders that the US might withdraw from the alliance.