The West is “in hysterics” after Donald Trump’s jibe at Nato underspending prompted outrage from European partners, Russian commentators have claimed.
The former US President said he had suggested to allies that America would not come to the aid of countries who were not meeting Nato financial commitments if an attack from Moscow were to take place.
At a South Carolina rally on Saturday, the Republican frontrunner told supporters that he’d brushed off another Nato leader’s enquiry about what he would do had Russia attacked them – and if they were not meeting the bloc’s defence spending targets.
He said he told them: “You didn't pay? You're delinquent? No, I would not protect you – in fact, I would encourage them to do whatever they want… You gotta pay.”
Vladimir Kornilov (centre), a commentator from Russia’s state-run media group Rossiya Segodnya, poked fun at Western reactions to Trump
PA/Rossiya 1/TCN
Nato requires its members to ring-fence 2 per cent of their annual GDP for defence spending, but the organisation says that 19 of its 30 participants – including France and Germany – aren’t stumping up the cash.
Trump’s comments appeared to threaten Nato’s Article Five, which states an armed attack against one member state will be considered an attack against them all – triggering collective self-defence.
Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg slammed Trump’s statement and said: “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk.”
The White House rejected Trump's comments as "appalling and unhinged."
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Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said: "Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security"
ReutersGerman newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said statements like Trump’s “will increase the risk of Putin expanding his war”, while a Guardian editorial labelled the former Potus’s comments as “unhinged”.
CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh said Trump “radically misunderstood” Nato and that his remarks could have a “catastrophic” impact.
But Vladimir Kornilov, a commentator from Russia’s state-run media group Rossiya Segodnya, poked fun at Western reactions to Trump.
Kornilov, who has previously urged Russia to attack British undersea infrastructure, said: “Mainstream TV channels in the West have been in hysterics for hours over Trump's claims that he would encourage Russia to attack defaulters in Nato.
“With particular gusto, everyone is quoting Secretary General Stoltenberg saying that with this statement Trump has supposedly ‘put soldiers of Alliance countries at risk’.
“What ‘risk’ is that, I wonder? Or are they actually seriously contemplating a scenario in which Russia would audit Nato's financial statements and bomb persistent defaulters once a quarter? Would we act as the alliance's debt collectors?”
Despite Kornilov’s jibes, Moscow declined to comment officially on Trump’s remarks – Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “I am still Putin's press secretary, but not Trump's.”
US lawmakers have already braced for fallout from a possible Trump presidency – a near trillion-dollar defence bill passed in December last year which would bar the US pulling out of Nato without express Senate approval.