US to stay in NATO despite Trump, alliance chief says

The US won’t quit NATO regardless of the outcome of this year’s elections and despite threats by Donald Trump to exit the military alliance, according to the organization’s chief.

“The US will remain a staunch and important ally because it is in the security interest of the United States to have more than 30 friends and allies,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday in an interview with Bloomberg TV at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

“That’s something China and Russia don’t have — it makes the US safer and stronger,” Stoltenberg added.

The comments come amid concern among NATO officials, particularly in Europe, that Trump could be heading back to the White House after Iowa voters delivered him a clear victory in Monday’s Republican caucuses.

The former president has threatened to pull the US out of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That would leave Europe to defend itself with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at its borders, at a time when the region is struggling to ramp up its defence industry.

In past meetings, Trump never mentioned to Stoltenberg the US would never help Europe if it was under attack, the NATO chief said. European Commissioner Thierry Breton said last week that at a meeting with Trump in Davos in 2020, the former president said the US would never come to Europe’s aid if it was under attack.

Instead, Trump’s main complaint to him was that European allies weren’t spending enough on defence, Stoltenberg said. Allies in the region are now stepping up that spending, “so we have a good story to tell on burden sharing,” he added.