Borrell: NATO cannot be an alliance “by choice”
12 February 2024 16:46
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that NATO should not be dependent on the moods of specific politicians or even the heads of member states. He was responding to Donald Trump’s statement that he would encourage Russian strikes on allies that do not pay their NATO contributions, reports 
“NATO cannot be an alliance of choice, cannot be dependent on the mood of whoever is President of the United States today. “Yes, no, maybe tomorrow”. Stop it! Let’s be serious: NATO exists or it doesn’t! But I don’t want to waste time commenting on this US presidential campaign,”
– borrell said.
With these words, he commented on Donald Trump’s statement that during his election campaign he would not only not defend those NATO allies who do not pay their dues, but would even encourage attacks on them.
During another campaign speech, Trump recalled telling the leader of a NATO member state that he would not defend the Alliance’s “willful defaulter”.
“One of the presidents of a great country stood up and said: “Sir, if we don’t pay and we are attacked by Russia, will you defend us?” I said: “You haven’t paid, are you a defaulter? No, I would not defend you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever they want. You have to pay. You have to pay your bills,”
– trump said.
These words were also criticised by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
“Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the United States, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk. I expect that no matter who wins the presidential election, the United States will remain a strong and committed ally of NATO,”
– stoltenberg said.
