'NATO cannot be an alliance a la carte,' says EU's Borrell after Trump comments

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00:00 In other news, NATO states were caught off guard after the most recent incendiary statement

00:05 from Donald Trump.

00:06 In comments made in South Carolina over the weekend, the former president, who is seeking

00:10 re-election, suggested he'd let Russia "do what it wants to NATO members who don't pay

00:16 their bills."

00:17 For more on this, we can go across to Pierre Benazer, standing by in Brussels.

00:22 Pierre, what sort of reaction has those comments been getting?

00:27 Well, it's a huge worry for the Europeans, obviously.

00:33 We've heard the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, saying that those

00:38 were reckless comments and it would also call for a broadening and a toughening of the European

00:46 defence initiatives, which have already actually taken place, given all that has been made

00:52 for ammunition and the relaunching of the industrial processes in the matter of defence.

00:59 This also was greeted as a NATO à la carte, which is not possible, by José Borrell, head

01:06 of the European diplomacy, saying that he will not be commenting on any silly declaration

01:12 during this US campaign.

01:14 And obviously, the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, was saying that this was

01:20 undermining the collective security and defence and putting European NATO soldiers and American

01:27 soldiers at also, well, put them under threat from Russia, obviously, but the Allies were

01:34 ready.

01:35 The situation has changed quite a lot since actually Donald Trump was the president.

01:40 It is true that 10 years ago, six years ago, NATO spending was very low at its lowest point

01:47 in 2016.

01:49 He reached an agreement with NATO Allies in 2018 at a summit in Brussels.

01:54 They would get to the objective of a 2% of their GDP in defence spending.

02:00 The situation has changed drastically ever since Russia invaded Ukraine.

02:05 And now the United States are not even on the highest step of the podium.

02:10 Poland is now spending 3.9% of its GDP on defence.

02:15 So it's not the same as when he was a president.

02:18 So he's getting back on stuff that worked out six years ago, but does not anymore.

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