Trump vows to push NATO spending as Ukraine peace talks loom
During an online appearance at Davos, Donald Trump addressed the ongoing war in Ukraine. He assured that his efforts for peace are already in progress but noted that Kyiv is prepared for peace. "We need to ask Russia," stated the 47th President of the United States.
When asked if peace will prevail in Ukraine by next year's edition of the economic forum in Davos, the politician responded, "We need to ask Russia" because Ukraine is ready for it. He reiterated his earlier assessments that many more people are dying in the war than is publicly acknowledged.
"Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now, hopefully, underway. It’s so important to get that done. That is an absolute killing field. Nobody’s seen anything like it since World War II. It’s time to end it," said Donald Trump.
Later, during a question-and-answer session with bank and company executives, the politician expressed hope that China, which has significant "influence" on this situation, could help in ending the war in Ukraine. The USA intends to cooperate with China for this purpose.
Donald Trump with another appeal to NATO
"I’m also going to ask all NATO nations to increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP, which is what it should have been years ago — it was only at 2 percent, and most nations didn’t pay until I came along," stated Trump.
He later added, "I insisted that they pay, and they did — because the United States was really paying the difference at that time, and it’s — it was unfair to the United States. But many, many things have been unfair for many years to the United States."
Trump had previously declared that he would seek to increase military spending by NATO allies, but on Thursday, he said it for the first time in a formal, prepared speech. So far, no Alliance country spends the equivalent of 5% of GDP on defense, with Poland being the closest to this goal, according to budget plans.
