MOSCOW, February 14. /TASS/. The Kremlin is not surprised by statements that Donald Trump, if re-elected US president, would push for changes to NATO and strip the right to collective defense from countries that do not allocate at least two percent of their GDP to military spending, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Earlier, Joseph Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general and former adviser to the US president, provided this information to Reuters.
"We've seen [the statements]. But to be fair, let's remember that when he was the US president, this was one of Trump's main messages that he used in all his dealings with alliance members. He kept recalling these two percent on different occasions. So, there is no novelty in his approach to this problem," the Kremlin spokesman told reporters.
On February 10, Trump, who is seeking the US presidential nomination from the Republican Party, while speaking to his supporters in the state of South Carolina, recalled one of his meetings with NATO leaders. According to him, one of the presidents then asked him whether the US was ready to defend the alliance in case of an alleged threat from Russia if the country did not make defense contributions to NATO.
Back then, Trump responded that he would not defend such a country and, moreover, "would encourage them to do whatever the hell they (Russian authorities - TASS) want." The former president did not specify when and where this conversation occurred and which of the leaders asked him such a question.
The alliance countries set the task to bring their military spending to 2% of GDP at the summit in Wales in September 2014, motivating it by the "Russian threat" in connection with the reunification of Crimea with Russia. In July 2023, the Vilnius summit decided that 2% of GDP should become the minimum level of defense spending for NATO countries, rather than a target.