Trump's criticism of Nato
stretches back decades.
He actually made some of the same claims
during an appearance on Larry
King Live in 1987.
I've always felt that
Naito and West Germany,
I mean, we have all those troops over there.
I feel that they should pay their way.
I agree with you on NAITO.
I agree with you on other countries.
If you look at the payments
that we're making to NAITO,
they're totally disproportionate
with everybody else's
and it's ridiculous.
Got all of the archives.
His comments past and present,
have driven palpable concern
on capitol hill.
So much so that lawmakers late last year
passed legislation
that would prevent any president
from withdrawing from NAITO
without Senate approval.
Joining us now to discuss
is US Permanent Representative to NAITO,
Ambassador Julian Smith.
Ambassador, I appreciate your time
this morning.
Can I ask just a basic question upfront?
Are there any naito members
who are currently delinquent
in payments to the United States?
Well, thank you.
I think what
we need to be clear about
is no one is delinquent.
This is not a country club.
There are no dues here at Naito.
Instead, what we have all committed to do
is to invest in our own national defense.
All allies.
Ten years ago
said that they would take steps
to move to the 2% target
to spend 2% of their GDP on defense.
And over the last ten years,
the large majority of allies inside
the Naito Alliance have moved out
and inched closer to 2%.
We're going to hear later this week
the secretary general
come out with a number
that is considerably higher
from where we've been.
So we've seen nine years of consecutive
increases in the defense
spending among our allies.
And we're going to be celebrating
that at the summit
this summer in Washington.
That's exactly
kind of where I wanted you to go with this,
because I think we actually have
the chart of kind of the better
part of the last ten years.
2014 was
it was a big moment
when the 2% of GDP was agreed upon.
And we have seen a steady progression
upward across the alliance.
Still, though,
I think currently 11
of the alliance's members
have hit that 2% threshold,
but it has been a steady increase.
Are there signs that
the others will get there
soon, that they're moving forward
beyond just inching up, to use your words
in your words?
Well, let me
give you a little bit more detail.
So in 2014,
we had three allies here
inside the alliance that were spending
2% of GDP on their national defense.
This year at the summit,
we think we're going to be close
to two thirds of the alliance spending
2% of their GDP on defense.
So that is leaps
and bounds from where we started.
And thanks to the efforts
of President Obama, President Trump
and now President Biden,
we are now seeing allies step up
and do more for their own defense.
This is really producing
real results here.
We're able to take those resources
and do more to enhance our deterrence
and defense across the alliance.
We're able
to do more
to protect ourselves from cyber attacks.
We're able to do more to work
with our allies
to protect critical infrastructure
and do more to build resilience.
So each and every day
here in the alliance,
we're working with our allies
together to protect our shared security.
This alliance serves us interests.
It protects Americans,
and it serves the interests
of our allies as well.
So we're happy to see the increases.
We'll continue to push those
that aren't quite there yet.
But the goal is to have all allies
hit the 2% this year
or in the next few years.
Ambassador, the president often tells
a story of his first G7 summit
where he kept saying America was back.
And I think it was French
President Macron who said
for how long that was 20, 21.
The progression,
I think people assumed in American
politics is not necessarily gone
as maybe some of the administration
would have planned.
When you talk
to your colleagues in Brussels,
when you talk to other ministers,
what are they saying about what
they're hearing right now from the
I've never seen?
And Stoltenberg
put out a more forceful statement
than I saw yesterday.
How does that
reflect in your
conversations that you're having?
Well, first and foremost,
I would say that the allies
really appreciated President Biden
coming in
and making alliances,
kind of a key feature of his
foreign policy agenda.
In fact,
we've seen seven decades
of Democratic and Republican presidents
making alliances
the cornerstone of each
and every part
of our national security policy.
Why do we do that?
Because alliances
ultimately make us stronger.
They serve our interests
and allow us to work together
with other countries around the world
to protect our own security.
So alliances are always
a good investment.
There's been no denying
that over the last 75 years in terms
of what comes in the months
ahead, in the years ahead.
They're what I say
to my European and Canadian
counterparts is I see strong bi
partizan support
among the American public
for this alliance.
I see Democrats and Republicans largely
on the Hill coming together
to support NAITO.
Each and every delegation
that comes through here from Congress,
whether they're from one
side of the aisle
or the other,
always expresses
strong bipartisan support
in this alliance.
Americans know
that this is a good value for America
and that it brings security to us
and to our allies.
So I put my faith in the American people.
I put my faith in Congress
where I see deep
bipartisan support for this alliance.
Yeah, it's very true.
And a lot of this bipartisan coattails
come back and make clear that
when they talk to foreign
officials,
their biggest question is about
is Donald Trump
going to be president again?
We will obviously have to wait and see
over the course of the next nine months.
Ambassador Julian Smith,
we always appreciate your time.
Thanks so much.