Prior to the NATO Foreign Ministry meeting that began on Thursday, some of the European NATO countries suspected the US desire to commit to NATO and its joint defense.
“Hard speech has been heard” also admitted NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte Wednesday.
The relationship between the United States and other federal countries became a new wrinkle late Wednesday night Finnish time when President Donald Trump announced new trades that also hit the EU and NATO countries.
In spite of all this, the Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (co.) He described the atmosphere of Thursday’s NATO meeting as “warm”.
“Actually, the warmth was that they were able to speak very openly and eventually were very similar to these things that Trump has been pushing for peace in Ukraine and Europe has to take greater responsibility for its own defense.
US Foreign Minister for the first time in the NATO meeting Marco Rubio said in Brussels that the defense spending of NATO countries should be raised to 5 % in the next few years, as President Trump has previously demanded.
Valtonen said that the good atmosphere of the meeting was, among other things, a joke about Trump’s tariffs and defense lifting.
“Here, even a little joke was thrown that if you set tariffs and get it to the recession, it will be easier to reach a 5 % GDP goal when GDP Dyykka, that is, those discussions were also held,” Valtonen said at a news conference for Finnish media.
Will the United States leave?
In February Pete Hegseth Said at NATO’s headquarters that the United States assumes that European NATO countries take responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe in 10 to 15 years.
According to Valtonen, such a steep line is no longer valid, at least if there is a belief in Foreign Minister Rubio’s speeches.
Valtonen said that “colleague Rubio’s message was very different from what was heard from the Defense Minister Hegset a couple of months ago.”
According to Valtonen, the line difference emphasizes that Trump’s administration has “a bit of shade differences”. As well as the fact that Trump’s administration “maybe such an atmosphere and strategy may be alive”.
Valtonen said that “anything that would have caused the cause of concern over what has already been heard and known, not heard from Foreign Minister Rubio – on the contrary,” Valtonen said.
Rubio convinced the US commitment on NATO on Thursday, but the United States requires Europe and Canada to bear their own responsibility for strengthening the defense of the common union.