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Donald Trump “has realized that NATO is very valuable,” the outgoing US ambassador to the alliance told Sky News.
Kay Bailey Hutchison also said that if the The american president win a second term, he will fulfill the commitment by demanding that all NATO countries come to the defense of another if asked.
The Article 5 compromise has only been invoked once: America after the 9/11 attacks.
Donald Trump has previously criticized NATO
Speaking from Brussels, Hutchison said NATO was stronger because of the pressure Trump put on the alliance early in his presidency.
“The president has made it very clear that he asked our allies to step up, and they are,” he said.
“We all know that we have more to do to obtain the necessary capabilities to become the security umbrella of our transatlantic alliance, but we are doing it.”
Trump described NATO as “outdated” shortly before taking office and threatened to withdraw the United States from the transatlantic alliance if more countries did not meet the minimum spending requirements of 2% of GDP.
When asked how Trump would react if joint NATO spending fell as a result of financial pressures from coronavirus pandemic, Ms. Hutchinson urged members to honor their commitments.
She said: “I don’t think we can afford to go the other direction. We cannot allow a health crisis to turn into a security crisis. If we are going to see what our adversaries are doing, like Russia and an increase China – they are not stopping their evil hybrid attacks; they are not stopping the Belt and Road initiative; they are in no way diminishing their defense capabilities. “
Ms Hutchison Says NATO Can’t Afford To Back Off
He also urged leaders to be “lucid” about China “taking over port after port, even in Europe.”
“The Belt and Road Initiative is one more area where we see China using economic power to take assets when predatory loans cannot be repaid and we consider such activity evil,” he said.
“We have to come together and understand that the importance of security is what has kept our economies strong and will rebuild economies when it does. COVID-19 has been defeated. “
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On Russia, Ms Hutchison said that NATO actions have limited Russian behavior, which “would have been more aggressive if we had not taken that position after Crimea.”
“We know that Russia is trying to divide us with many areas of aggression,” he said.
“I think we are making a difference and the deterrence that we are producing is the signal to Russia that we would like them to become a legitimate partner, we would like to trade with Russia, we would like to have partnerships. But they would need to change their behavior to achieve this. “.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson greets Trump at a NATO summit in the UK last December
Hutchison admitted that Russia was ahead of the United States in developing hypersonic missiles, but said the United States would catch up.
“We are certainly going to get the defenses for all the missiles that we know Russia is producing,” he said.
“We know they have built more missiles. We have not violated the INF (Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty, they have. So they are ahead on that.
“But we are going to catch up and we are going to deter all their missiles, be they intercontinental or shorter range.”
