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Topics: Donald Trump, Europe, World News
Callum Jones
Topics: Donald Trump, Europe, World News
Europe reportedly has a plan for NATO without the US following multiple comments made by Donald Trump threatening to quit the alliance.
In recent weeks, the president was asked by the Telegraph if he had any plans to take US out of the bloc, to which he responded: "Oh yes, I would say [it’s] beyond reconsideration… I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way."
The US is one of 12 founding member countries of NATO when it was created in 1949, while 32 different nations currently sit part of the coalition.
America provides 15.8 percent of NATO's yearly expenditure, making it the a crucial player in the alliance, but with Trump's threats to leave, some European nations are reportedly drawing up a plan for a new reformed NATO without the US involved.
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Dubbed the 'European NATO', members are said to be hatching up a plan to supplement US military assets with their own in a bid to steer off the threat of Vladimir Putin and Russia, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal.
Those involved in the secret talks stress the new alliance is not intended to rival NATO as we know it, but plans are instead being put in place to neutralise the threat of nuclear powerhouses.
The Financial Times previously reported that it would somewhere between five and ten years of increased spending from European nations to reach a level 'where they could replace most US competences'.
And the outlet stated a plan conjured up by some NATO members involves steps regarding a managed transfer of a period as long as ten years.
Speaking of the plans, a source told the Financial Times: "Increasing spending is the only play that we have: burden sharing and shifting the dial away from US reliance.
"We’re starting those talks but it’s such a big task that many are overwhelmed by the scale of it."
It's safe to say the US' relationship with NATO has become even more complicated in recent weeks after the president joined forces with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the war in Iran.
Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, met with Trump in a behind-closed-doors meeting in Washington Last week.
Rutte told CNN of the meeting: "He clearly told me what he thought of what happened over the last couple of weeks."
The secretary general refused to say whether Trump threatened to leave NATO.