President airs deep differences with EU leaders over Russia, trade and climate

yesterday by: ​Arthur Beesley and Alex Barker in Brussels and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington

President Donald Trump scolded his Nato allies for their “chronic underfunding” of the Atlantic alliance at a ceremony in Brussels in which he failed to explicitly endorse its mutual defence commitment.

The US president’s blunt message to the assembled leaders of the alliance came on a day of pomp in the Belgian capital during which he aired deep differences with EU leaders over Russia, trade and climate and had a stern lunch with Emmanuel Macron that began with a handshake so strong it left their knuckles white and their jaws clenched.

Mr Trump’s first visit to Brussels since taking office four months ago had been billed as an opportunity to cement the transatlantic alliance after a rocky start to his presidency in which he chastised Nato, championed Brexit and castigated the EU as a “vehicle for Germany.”

The US president has softened his rhetoric since the days on the campaign trail when he questioned whether the US would defend Baltic allies under Russian attack. Although the president declared in recent weeks that Nato was no longer “obsolete”, he had stayed silent for months on Article 5 of its founding treaty — the commitment that its members make to come to each other’s defence.

It was the same on Thursday. The president’s remarks at the opening of Nato’s gleaming new headquarters stopped well short of the public endorsement of Article 5 his European allies had expected.

The omission was all the greater since Mr Trump was unveiling a memorial to 9/11 and to Article 5, which was invoked for the first and only time after the 2001 attacks. The memorial contains steel taken from the rubble of the World Trade Center.

Giving the introduction, Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary-general, reminded the audience that New York is the president’s hometown. Yet Mr Trump went no further than saying the “twisted mass of metal” in the memorial reminds people “not only of what we have lost but also what forever endures, the courage of our people, the strength of our resolve and the commitments that bind us together as one”. His refusal to [endorse Article 5] while dedicating the September 11 and Article 5 memorial is a devastating blow to America’s Nato allies Thomas Wright, Brookings Institution

Mr Trump’s failure to endorse the alliance’s mutual defence clause came as a shock. Nicholas Burns, who was US ambassador to Nato on 9/11, described it as a “major mistake”, noting on Twitter that “every US president since Truman” has pledged support for Article 5. “Not so Trump today at Nato.”

Thomas Wright, expert on US-Europe relations at the Brookings Institution, said Mr Trump’s remarks reflected deep divisions in his national security team and sowed the seeds of a future crisis. “His refusal to [endorse Article 5] while dedicating the September 11 and Article 5 memorial is a devastating blow to America’s Nato allies.”

Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, said the focus on whether Mr Trump had explicitly endorsed Article 5 of the treaty was a “bit silly”.

“The entire ceremony was called an Article 5 dedication,” said Mr Spicer. “It’s a bit silly because by being here at such a ceremony, we all understand that by being part of Nato, we treat the obligations and commitments . . . by having to reaffirm something by the very nature of being here and speaking at a ceremony about it is almost laughable.”

After calling for a moment of silence to remember the victims of the Manchester bombing, Mr Trump issued a forthright demand for allies to contribute more to Nato costs. “I have been very very direct … saying that Nato members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations,” Mr Trump said. “But 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defence. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the US — and many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years, and not paying in those past years.”

Mr Stoltenberg brushed aside unease among allies at the force of Mr Trump’s rebuke, insisting to reporters late on Thursday that the president was committed to the security guarantee. “He has many times clearly stated in meetings, conversations with me that he — and the US — [are] clearly committed to Nato and it’s no way possible to be committed to Nato without being committed to Article 5,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

But diplomats at Nato said the manner of Mr Trump’s intervention in such a public forum had come as a surprise to allies, and contradicted signals from Washington in advance of the meeting. “Everybody is saying: this cannot be true,” said one diplomat.

In the private dinner that followed the ceremonies, Mr Trump was equally forceful with Allied leaders. “It was the same blunt [message] and plain-speaking inside the meeting,” a Nato official said.

After a warm welcome in Saudi Arabia and Israel, the European leg of Mr Trump’s visit was always going to be more awkward. At one point, the president seemed to muscle in on a huddle of fellow Nato leaders, barging past his counterpart from Montenegro, the alliance’s newest member.

The differences were palpable even amid carefully choreographed displays of unity with European leaders who are still trying to size up Mr Trump and the outlook for their relations with Washington during his presidency. Nato Pence seeks to reassure EU on ‘strong’ Trump commitment to bloc US vice-president stresses economic links and need for co-operation on security

Mr Macron said his encounter with Mr Trump was “extremely direct and very frank”. The French president also pressed him on climate change.

One diplomat briefed on his talks with EU leaders said Mr Trump referred in breathtaking terms to the potential to deal with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who stands accused of covert interference in the election campaign that brought him to the White House.

Mr Trump had met earlier with Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, and Jean-Claude Juncker, chief of the European Commission, for talks described as good-natured.

Mr Tusk said both sides “agreed on many areas”, among them measures to counter terrorism. “But some issues remain open, like climate and trade,” he said at a statement to reporters without Mr Trump. “And I’m not 100 per cent sure . . . that we have a common opinion about Russia, although when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine it seems we were on the same line.”

Despite the US president’s previous reservations about the EU, he now seems to have come to a more palatable view of the bloc. One official said a member of his entourage “expressed concern that jobs in the US would be lost because of Brexit” in the financial sector particularly.

The president’s day in Brussels was micromanaged so it included no press conferences or extended public opportunities to air his views on the EU and Nato, lest it undermine the diplomatic purpose of the trip. But the tensions were clear all the same.