The secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) said President-elect Donald Trump personally affirmed his commitment to the alliance in a conversation after Election Day.
“I spoke with President-elect Donald Trump after he was elected and he conveyed a very clear message to me and to the whole alliance that he and the United States will stay strongly committed to NATO,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told Bloomberg TV in an interview published Friday.
Mr. Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, said that has also been the message from Rex Tillerson, Mr. Trump’s pick for secretary of state, and Gen. James Mattis, the president-elect’s pick for secretary of defense.
“I am absolutely confident that the United States will stay committed to NATO,” Mr. Stoltenberg said.
In a recent interview with the Times of London, Mr. Trump said NATO is “obsolete” because it wasn’t taking care of terror but that it is “very important” to him.
Mr. Trump suggested last year that the United States might not come to the defense of a member country if that country wasn’t paying its share into the group. The alliance was originally formed after World War II as a counterweight against the old Soviet Union.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.