MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump was going to threaten leaders of NATO member-states at the 2018 summit that the United States would leave the alliance if they continued supporting the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, ex-White House National Security Advisor John Bolton says in his latest book entitled: The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir.

"He [President Trump - TASS] called me in the car first to ask, "Are you ready to play in the big leagues· today? This is what I want to say," and he proceeded to dictate the· following:"We have great respect for NATO, but·we’re being· treated unfairly. By January 1, all nations must commit to two percent, and we will forgive arrears,or we will walk out, and not defend· those who have not. So long as we are not getting· along with Russia, we will not go into· a NATO where NATO· countries are paying· billions to Russia. We’re out· if they make the pipeline deal," Bolton says in the book.

Together with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, he eventually managed to convince Trump not to use threats like those but limit himself to calling upon NATO members to step up their defense spending, Bolton adds.

The Nord Stream 2 project involves the construction of two gas pipeline branches that would have a total capacity of 55 bln cubic meters per year transferred from Russia to Germany across the Baltic Sea. That said, 93% of the gas pipeline has been completed to date.