President Donald Trump on Sunday spoke with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, where Trump expressed “strong support” for the alliance, according to the White House.
“President Donald J. Trump spoke today with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg about the United States’ strong support for NATO,” the White House said in a readout of the phone call.
The leaders also discussed the conflict in Ukraine. The White House said that they talked about “the potential for a peaceful resolution of the conflict along the Ukrainian border.” The readout from NATO confirmed that Trump and Stoltenberg “discussed the uptick in violence in eastern Ukraine, and prospects for a peaceful settlement.”
Both the Trump administration and NATO said in statements that the two parties talked about NATO members’ commitment to defense spending, a pet issue of Trump’s. The President has previously said that member countries do not pay their fair share and threatened to withhold American support unless other members fulfilled their funding obligations.
“The leaders discussed how to encourage all NATO allies to meet their defense spending commitments,” the White House said in its statement on the call.
NATO said that Trump and Stoltenberg “reviewed progress on the fight against terrorism and on NATO defence spending, and stressed the need for continued efforts to ensure fair burden-sharing among all NATO Allies.”
Trump also committed to attending a NATO summit in May, per the White House.
