Trump calls for increased NATO spending and peace in Ukraine
Donald Trump, during an online address in Davos, referred to the war in Ukraine, assuring that his efforts for peace are already in progress. However, he noted that Kyiv is prepared for this. "We should ask Russia," stated the 47th President of the United States.
When asked if peace would prevail in Ukraine by the time of next year's economic forum in Davos, Trump replied, "You should ask Russia about that," because Ukraine is ready for it. He also reiterated his previous claims that far more people are dying in the conflict than is being reported.
"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," stated Donald Trump.
Later, during a Q&A session with bank and company executives, the politician expressed hope that China, which has a great "influence" on this situation, could assist in ending the war in Ukraine. The USA intends to collaborate with China for this purpose.
Donald Trump with a renewed 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 stated that he would seek an increase in military spending by NATO allies, but on Thursday, he said this for the first time in a formal, prepared speech. So far, no country in the Alliance spends the equivalent of 5% of GDP on defence, with Poland being the closest, according to budget plans, set to spend 4.7%.
