Merkel trades barbs with Trump at Nato summit
The defence alliance summit in Brussels is shaping up as its most difficult in years
Brussels — US President Donald Trump traded barbs with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a tense North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) summit on Wednesday after he accused Berlin of being “captive” to Russia and demanded it immediately step up defence spending. The two-day meeting in Brussels is shaping up as the alliance’s most difficult in years, with Europe and the US engaged in a bitter trade spat and Trump demanding that Nato allies “reimburse” Washington for the cost of defending the continent. Merkel shot back that Germany had the right to make its own policy choices, setting up an explosive one-on-one meeting with Trump in the afternoon. European alliance members were braced for criticism from Trump on defence spending, but his blistering attack on Germany at a breakfast meeting with Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg took the summit by surprise. “Germany is a captive of Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from Russia,” Trump said. He took particular aim at the ...
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