WASHINGTON: Donald Trump says that as US president he threatened not to come to the defence of Nato allies if they were attacked by Russia unless they helped fund the alliance more.

Both when campaigning and once in the White House, Trump often sought to publicly undermine Nato, the US-led military alliance at the heart of Western geopolitical power since World War II, but which he described as a group of countries living off US largesse.

However, his comments late Thursday to an event hosted by the right-wing Heritage Foundation were unusually stark, boasting that the media had failed to notice his threat.

Although Nato’s Article 5 clause requires members come to the defence of any part of the alliance under attack, Trump said he suggested at a summit that the treaty wouldn’t be honored, because “everybody was delinquent. They didn’t pay.”

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2022