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Trump puts NATO allies on BLAST 'They were not there for us' · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This week, President Trump will join NATO leaders for a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: high stake summit in Turkey.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Iran and the war in Ukraine.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Are expected to be major points of discussion. The meeting
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: comes as President Trump once again called out NATO allies,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: saying the United States carries too much of the financial
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  Speaker 1: burden for the alliance. Let's bring in former US Ambassador
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  Speaker 1: to NATO, Kurt Volker. Mister ambassador, welcome, Thank you so much.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Great to be with you.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: So we're in a dangerous world. You've got the NATO
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  Speaker 1: allies coming together. What are the stakes as we head
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  Speaker 1: into this summit.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that President Trump has been right all
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  Speaker 3: along to focus on getting NATO countries to spend more
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  Speaker 3: on defense, and indeed they've committed to do so, and
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  Speaker 3: they've begun doing so. So last year at the Hague Summit,
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  Speaker 3: they committed to five percent of GDP on defense spending.
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  Speaker 3: Some countries are already at that level, like Poland and
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  Speaker 3: some of the Baltic states. Others are increasing their defense spending.
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  Speaker 3: So that's been important because we have the biggest war
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: in Europe right now since World War Two. We have
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  Speaker 3: threats from Iran, we have threats from China. So getting
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  Speaker 3: those European allies to do more has been an important priority.
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  Speaker 3: That being said, I think that the summit is not
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  Speaker 3: going to be that exciting this time, largely because things
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  Speaker 3: are moving in the right direction.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I want to play for you a clip from the
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  Speaker 1: current US ambassador to NATO, and i'll have you respond
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  Speaker 1: to him.
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  Speaker 2: President Trump was very frustrated during Epic Fury, especially at
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  Speaker 2: the start, where we had either allies that didn't cooperate
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: with our use of our own bases or even more importantly,
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  Speaker 2: we're very negative on the efforts politically with their statements,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that was incredibly frustrating for many of
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  Speaker 2: us that know to President Trump's point that he made
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: the world better with Iran not being on a path
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: to getting a nuclear weapon, and so we have to
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: make sure that our allies are with us politically and
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  Speaker 2: militarily at all times.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: What do you making some of this tension among allies.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: Well, first off, I think Master Whittaker is doing a
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: great job, and he's explaining that there was real frustration
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: in Washington when we asked for the use of airfields
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  Speaker 3: or bases that we have in Europe and were denied.
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  Speaker 3: In a couple of cases by some of those European allies,
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  Speaker 3: not all. In fact, the majority is supported, but there
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  Speaker 3: were some who said, no, that shouldn't happen. Now, part
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  Speaker 3: of the reason that happened is we took everybody by surprise.
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  Speaker 3: No one knew this war was coming. They didn't know
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  Speaker 3: we were going to launch these attacks. Everybody was flat footed.
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  Speaker 3: And President Trump has repeatedly said, we don't need anyone's help,
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: and yet it would have been nice if they offered.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: So I think he's right to share with allies that frustration.
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  Speaker 3: But I think allies have now had time to really
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  Speaker 3: sink their teeth into this, understand the current situation, which
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: is a ceasefire that is tenuous, and I think you're
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: going to find that the Native Summit allies are going
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  Speaker 3: to be willing to help the United States when it
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: comes to future security arrangements for the Persian Golf. But
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: we've got to have clarity as to what the final
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: deal is, which we still don't have. We've got to
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  Speaker 3: have clarity about what the military operation would be, and
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  Speaker 3: then allies can step in and play their role.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: How tricky is the role of NATO's Secretary General, right
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  Speaker 1: now in terms of promoting unity within the alliance.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is very tricky because you have President Trump
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  Speaker 3: expressing a lot of frustration with NATO, whether it's on
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: defense spending or just as you said the other day,
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  Speaker 3: claiming that we get nothing out of NATO, which I
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: don't agree with. But you have President Trump saying that,
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: and on the other hand, you have allies that are
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: deeply unhappy with President Trump. So in that context, it
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  Speaker 3: is very difficult for the Secretary General to keep everybody
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: on the same page. And I have to say I
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  Speaker 3: think he's doing an excellent job.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Turkey, the host nation, is at best a complicated NATO ally.
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  Speaker 1: What about President Ertawan being the host of this summit?
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  Speaker 3: You know, I I think if anyone in NATO could
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: have picked a country to host this summit this time,
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  Speaker 3: it would be Turkey. Airduwan is a strong leader. President
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  Speaker 3: Trump respects him. He doesn't want to show up in
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  Speaker 3: Turkey and destroy the NATO summit that he's hosting. The
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: US has other interests with Turkey outside of NATO, such
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: as in dealing with Iran, such as in dealing with Syria,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: and even in dealing with Lebanon. So President Trump is
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  Speaker 3: going to be careful to make sure we are working
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  Speaker 3: with Turkey across the board and not want to interrupt
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: or disrupt this NATO summit that's being held there. I
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  Speaker 3: think this is very positive in fact, that you're going
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  Speaker 3: to have President Trump going there with the view of
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: making sure this is a successful meeting.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: In the months after nine to eleven, Fox sent me
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: to Afghanistan, I remember our NATO allies being there to
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  Speaker 1: support the mission in Afghanistan. How important is it for
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  Speaker 1: Americans to remember that NATO WI was there for us.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: After the nine to eleven attacks.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's critically important. The only time that NATO's Article five,
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  Speaker 3: the Collective Defense Commitment was invoked was in response to
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  Speaker 3: the attacks on the United States. Was never invoked to
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  Speaker 3: protect anyone in Europe. Because we've been able to deter
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  Speaker 3: attacks within Europe, and that's what NATO is for, is
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  Speaker 3: to prevent aggression, and it works really, really well. If
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: we were not working together with NATO on that, we
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  Speaker 3: would have already had bigger wars in Europe affecting our allies.
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  Speaker 3: And then, as you mentioned, when we have taken on
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  Speaker 3: operations in America's interests, whether it was the war in Afghanistan,
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  Speaker 3: in Iraq, in Syria, bombing campaign in Syria, Bosnia, Kosovo.
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  Speaker 3: Our allies have always been there, and right after nine
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  Speaker 3: to eleven they were helping patrol the skies over North America.
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  Speaker 3: They brought their aircraft here to make sure that there
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  Speaker 3: were not any more airborne threats to American cities. So
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  Speaker 3: we get a lot out of NATO. We do a
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  Speaker 3: lot with NATO, and we're better off in a world
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  Speaker 3: where there are lots of free and prosperous democratic countries
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  Speaker 3: to work together.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so we're nearly out of time, but we're not
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  Speaker 1: expecting major news necessarily. But you think maybe a friendlier
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: gathering of NATO.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it'll be a friendlier gathering of NATO.
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  Speaker 3: I think there will be a renewed commitment to high
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: levels of defense spending. There'll be an announcement that the
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  Speaker 3: US is going to review our force posture in Europe
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  Speaker 3: and we want Europe to pick up some of the slack.
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  Speaker 3: That's a good thing. I don't think anyone should be
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  Speaker 3: afraid of that. That's the kind of thing we should do.
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  Speaker 3: And I think there'll be renewed commitments both from Europeans
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: about Iran and from the United States about helping bring
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: an end to Russia's war against Ukraine.
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  Speaker 1: Ambassador Kurt Wolker, thanks very much for your analysis today,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: my pleasure.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 6:50
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• 6:53
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• 6:58
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