Washington, Apr 7 (PTI): US President Donald Trump has lashed out at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), accusing the alliance and other friendly nations such as South Korea, Japan and Australia of failing to help the US in the Iran war.
Trump’s remarks at a press conference at the White House on Monday came days ahead of NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte’s visit to Washington to meet the US President, who has dismissed the alliance as a “paper tiger”.
Trump said the war with Iran had left a mark on NATO “that will never disappear in my mind.” The US President made it clear that the differences with NATO began when it spurned his move to take Greenland.
“NATO is a paper tiger that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s not afraid of,” Trump told reporters here.
On the Iran war, Trump said NATO members actually “went out of their way not to help”.
“Look, we went to NATO. I didn’t ask very strongly, I just said, ‘Hey, if you want to help, great’,” the US President said.
“No, no, no, we will not help,” Trump said he was told, while not saying who he spoke to.
Trump said NATO members were now trying to engage with him and offer support only after the United States had already won the war. “They’re coming to see me on Wednesday,” he said, adding that “all of a sudden” they now wanted to send help.
“Japan didn’t help us, Australia didn’t help us, South Korea didn’t help us, and then you get to NATO – NATO didn’t help us,” Trump said.
“We’ve got 50,000 soldiers in Japan to protect them from North Korea; we have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un,” Trump said.
Trump said he gets along “very well” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
“You know who else didn’t help us? South Korea didn’t help us. You know who else didn’t help us? Australia didn’t help us. You know who else didn’t help us? Japan,” Trump said.
“But we have 45,000 people, soldiers in harm’s way, right next to Kim Jong-un with a lot of nuclear weapons—45,000—what should have never happened,” he said.
“If a certain president, I’m not going to mention this president, I happen to like him, believe it or not, but if a certain president did his job, Kim Jong-un would not have nuclear weapons, but they’re all afraid to do their job properly,” Trump said.
He also suggested that the widening rift between the United States and NATO began earlier, when he first proposed taking over Greenland.
“It all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland,” Trump said.
“We want Greenland. They don’t want to give it to us. And I said, ‘bye, bye’,” the US President said. PTI SKU SCY SCY
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
