US President Donald Trump charged Wednesday that Germany is "delinquent" in its contributions to NATO, accusing the US ally of stinting on defense while it pays Russia billions of dollars for energy

Washington, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - APP - 26th Jun, 2019 ) :US President Donald Trump charged Wednesday that Germany is "delinquent" in its contributions to NATO , accusing the US ally of stinting on defense while it pays Russia billions of Dollars for energy.

"So Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy, okay," he said in a wide-ranging interview with Fox business news.

"So they are giving Russia billions of dollars yet we are supposed to protect Germany and Germany is delinquent! okay?" he said. </s> US President Donald Trump charged on Wednesday that Germany is “delinquent” in its contributions to NATO, accusing the US ally of stinting on defense while it pays Russia billions of dollars for energy.

“So Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy, okay,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with Fox Business News.

“So they are giving Russia billions of dollars yet we are supposed to protect Germany and Germany is delinquent! Okay?” he said.

Last Update: Wednesday, 26 June 2019 KSA 16:04 - GMT 13:04 </s> US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that China wants a trade deal with the United States because its economy is weakening.

"China's economy is going down the tubes -- they want to make a deal," Trump said in an interview with Fox Business News.

He also charged that Germany is "delinquent" in its contributions to NATO, accusing the US ally of stinting on defense while it pays Russia billions of dollars for energy.

"So Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy, okay," he said in the interview.

"So they are giving Russia billions of dollars yet we are supposed to protect Germany and Germany is delinquent! okay?" he said.

Get Breaking news, live coverage, and Latest News from India and around the world on NDTV.com. Catch all the Live TV action on NDTV 24x7 and NDTV India. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram for latest news and live news updates. </s> Trump on Wednesday aired a new complaint about Japan, Washington's closest ally in Asia, lamenting the U.S.' decades-old defense pact with the country as one-sided and unfair.

The U.S. president said the more than 60-years-old treaty was one-sided to the disadvantage of Washington as the Japanese military had no obligation to come to U.S. defense.

"If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. We will go in and protect them with our lives and with our treasure," he said, referring to the U.S.' guaranteed protection and aid to the east Asian country if it ever comes under attack.

"But if we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us. They can watch it on a Sony television," he told the Fox Business Network during a telephone interview.

His remarks came just hours before he headed to the country for the G-20 summit.

This isn't the first time Trump has bemoaned military agreements with Japan. According to Bloomberg, he recently spoke privately about withdrawing from the defense treaty with Japan as he is of the view that the post-WWII pact treated the U.S. unfairly.

However, Trump has not taken any steps in this regard and sources have said such a move is highly unlikely.

Trump's recent dig was a part of a wider policy of fixing what he says is a system rigged against the U.S. He is currently deeply engaged in his "America First" agenda that demands two-way agreements in foreign policy and international trade.

"Almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage of the United States. It's unbelievable," he said in the lengthy interview.

Casting his eye over the wider landscape, Trump also lashed out at close partners Vietnam and Germany.

Vietnam is "even worse than China" when it comes to unfair trading practices, he said. Vietnam is the "single worst abuser."

He described Germany — part of the bedrock of the U.S. alliance with western Europe — as "delinquent" for not paying enough to NATO's budget.

"So Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy, okay," he said. "So they are giving Russia billions of dollars yet we are supposed to protect Germany and Germany is delinquent! Okay?" </s> President Donald Trump has reiterated his promise to slap additional tariffs on China if a trade deal is not reached, saying that he was "happy" with things as they are and that China needed the deal more than the US did since its economy was hit hard by the existing restrictions.

"I would do additional tariffs, very substantial additional tariffs, if that doesn't work, if we don't make a deal," Trump said. "China's economy is going down the tubes - they want to make a deal," he stressed, speaking to Fox News Business on Wednesday morning.

The president said that the US could hold off on fresh tariffs if a deal is reached at the G20 meeting. The new tariffs could amount to a 10 percent tax on all Chinese imports into the United States, rather than the 25 percent figure mentioned earlier, Trump clarified.

Trump confirmed that the US side has been talking to its Chinese counterparts on the trade issue over the past few days.

According to the president, it was 'okay' with him if the US-China trade tensions impacted the world oil market.

In the interview, Trump also took a shot at Vietnam, another major US trade partner, saying US negotiators have been talking to Vietnamese officials over Hanoi's approach to trade with the US, which Trump said is even 'worse than China.'

The US and China were thrust into a tit-for-tat tariff spat in mid-2018, when the Trump administration slapped a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods. Since then, the economic superpowers hit one another with several more rounds of tariffs, with Trump recently threatening to put import duties on the remaining estimated $300 billion of Chinese goods coming to the US unless a deal can be worked out. At a campaign rally last week, Trump promised that the US would hammer out a fair trade deal with Beijing or walk away completely.

Turning to the subject of NATO defence, the US president accused Germany of being "delinquent" on its NATO defence spending obligations while spending "billions and billions" on Russian energy.

"So Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy, okay?" Trump said. "So they are giving Russia billions of dollars yet we are supposed to protect Germany and Germany is delinquent, okay?" he added.

Trump has repeatedly accused Germany and other NATO countries of failing to pay their fair share for the alliance and commit to the 2 percent of GDP defence spending figures outlined by the alliance. Germany's defence budget for 2019 is expected to amount to $49 billion, or about 1.2 percent of the country's GDP. </s> A bullish President Donald Trump warned China of an even deeper trade war Wednesday ahead of a G20 summit where he will meet President Xi Jinping, saying China’s remaining imports are “ripe” for tariffs. Markets are anxiously watching the Trump-Xi meeting, due Saturday, for a breakthrough in the dispute pitting the world’s two largest economies against each other.

Insisting that a strong negotiating hand means he has no need to give way, Trump did not especially seek to calm those nerves.

“China’s economy is going down the tubes — they want to make a deal,” Trump said in an interview with Fox Business News just hours before taking off for the summit in Osaka, Japan.

Trump has already hit $200 billion of Chinese imports with levies in an effort to force Beijing into intellectual property protection and other reforms of a trading system that Washington says gives China huge unfair advantages.

On Wednesday, the president strongly indicated he was ready to slap tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports — more than $300 billion worth.

“You have another $325 billion that I haven’t taxed yet — it’s ripe for taxing, for putting tariffs on,” he told Fox.

According to Trump, it’s China that’s feeling all the pain.

“What is happening is people are moving out of China. Companies are moving out of China, by the way, some are coming back to the United States because they don’t want to pay the tariff,” he told Fox Business News.

Trump did say that a previous threat to tax this remaining segment at 25 percent could be changed to a less harsh 10 percent.

The two sides said they were close to a deal before talks broke down in May.

“We were about 90 percent of the way there,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC television, saying he was looking forward to the Trump-Xi talks but stressing there would be no “deal for having the sake of a deal.”

“I hope the message that we want to hear is that they want to come back to the table,” Mnuchin said.

Trump’s aggressive attempt to rewrite the rules with China are part of a wider policy of fixing what he says is a system rigged against the United States.

“Almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage of the United States. It’s unbelievable,” he said in the lengthy interview.

Casting his eye over the wider landscape, Trump also lashed out at close partners Vietnam, Germany and Japan.

Vietnam is “even worse than China” when it comes to unfair trading practices, he said. Vietnam is the “single worst abuser.”

He described Germany — part of the bedrock of the US alliance with western Europe — as “delinquent” for not paying enough to NATO’s budget.

“So Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy, okay,” he said. “So they are giving Russia billions of dollars yet we are supposed to protect Germany and Germany is delinquent! Okay?”

Trump aired a similar complaint about Japan, Washington’s closest ally in Asia, which has been under the protection of a US military umbrella since its defeat in World War II.

“If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. We will go in and protect them with our lives and with our treasure,” he said. “But if we’re attacked, Japan doesn’t have to help us. They can watch it on a Sony television.” </s> President Donald Trump flew to the G20 summit Wednesday with a final diplomatic broadside, warning that China is "ripe" for new tariffs and accusing some of the closest US allies of being freeloaders.

Air Force One took off on a fiercely hot day from Washington and Trump seemed to promise heat of his own when he meets leaders of the G20 countries in Osaka, Japan, before stopping over in South Korea.

Declaring that he enjoys a strong hand in the trade war with China, he made clear he'll be in no mood to give much ground when he holds closely watched talks with President Xi Jinping on Saturday.

"China's economy is going down the tubes -- they want to make a deal," Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network.

Trump has already hit $200 billion of Chinese imports with levies in an effort to force Beijing into intellectual property protection and other reforms of a trading system that Washington says gives China huge unfair advantages.

The president indicated he was also ready to slap tariffs on all remaining Chinese imports -- more than $300 billion worth.

"You have another $325 billion that I haven't taxed yet -- it's ripe for taxing, for putting tariffs on," he told Fox.

According to Trump, it's China that's feeling all the pain, while the US side is benefiting from the situation.

"What is happening is people are moving out of China. Companies are moving out of China, by the way, some are coming back to the United States because they don't want to pay the tariff," he told Fox Business Network.

Trump did say that a previous threat to tax this remaining segment at 25 percent could be changed to a less harsh 10 percent.

The two sides said they were close to a deal before talks broke down in May.

"We were about 90 percent of the way there," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNBC television, saying he was looking forward to the Trump-Xi talks but stressing there would be no deal for "the sake of a deal."

"I hope the message that we want to hear is that they want to come back to the table," Mnuchin said.

Trump's aggressive attempt to rewrite the rules with China are part of a wider policy of fixing what he says is a system rigged against the United States.

"Almost all countries in this world take tremendous advantage of the United States. It's unbelievable," he said in the lengthy Fox interview.

Casting his eye over the wider landscape, Trump also lashed out at close partners Vietnam, Germany and Japan.

Vietnam is "even worse than China" when it comes to unfair trading practices, he said. Vietnam is the "single worst abuser."

He described Germany -- part of the bedrock of the US alliance with western Europe -- as "delinquent" for not paying enough to NATO's budget.

"So Germany is paying Russia billions and billions of dollars for energy, okay," he said. "So they are giving Russia billions of dollars yet we are supposed to protect Germany and Germany is delinquent! Okay?"

Trump aired a similar complaint about Japan, Washington's closest ally in Asia, which has been under the protection of a US military umbrella since its defeat in World War II.

"If Japan is attacked, we will fight World War III. We will go in and protect them with our lives and with our treasure," he said. "But if we're attacked, Japan doesn't have to help us. They can watch it on a Sony television."

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump remained coy on expectations for his meeting at the G20 with Russia's President Vladimir Putin.

Trump has been criticized for what opponents see as an oddly opaque relationship between the two leaders and he did little to dispel the controversy.

"I'll have a very good conversation with him," Trump told reporters. "What I say to him is none of your business."

On another intrigue-filled front, Trump said he would not be meeting with North Korea's strongman leader Kim Jong Un, but said "I may be speaking to him in a different form."

Trump has held two summits with Kim in a bid to persuade him to let go of his nuclear arsenal and end his country's isolation. So far, the policy has had little success. </s> BRUSSELS – In his first meeting with NATO, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday delivered a firm rebuke of Russian “aggression” and promised allies that the United States will stand by their side – while also demanding they spend more on defense and do more to fight terrorism.

Tillerson participated in abbreviated discussions with foreign ministers from the 27 other NATO member nations, who were sent scrambling last week to accommodate the top U.S. diplomat after he said he could not attend the meeting originally planned for early April.

What was supposed to be a two-day meeting was compressed into a half-day of talks; Tillerson spent just under five hours at NATO headquarters in Brussels and left for Washington before NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg gave a closing news conference.

The foreign ministers’ meeting is crucial because it lays the groundwork for a NATO summit with heads of state in May, which will be President Donald Trump’s first overseas trip since taking office. Trump has had to work hard to dispel doubts he created about his commitment to NATO, an alliance that has served as the foundation of Western security since World War II.

“The United States is committed to ensuring NATO has the capabilities to support our collective defense. We understand that a threat against one of us is a threat against all of us,” Tillerson said.

But, he added, “as President Trump has made clear, it is no longer sustainable for the U.S. to maintain a disproportionate share of NATO’s defense expenditures.”

The United States is amping up pressure on NATO members to increase their defense spending to 2 percent of gross domestic product, in line with a 2014 agreement among the alliance’s member countries to meet the target by 2024.

Only five NATO countries meet the 2 percent threshold. The U.S. spends 3.61 percent of its GDP on defense, more than any other member of the alliance.

Tillerson said that if countries have not met the 2 percent spending goal by the end of the year, they should at least have a concrete plan “that clearly articulates how, with annual milestone progress commitments, the pledge will be fulfilled.”

Pressure to meet that strict deadline is likely to upset some allies.

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told reporters before Friday’s meeting that he thinks it would be “completely unrealistic” for Germany to bring its military defense spending up to 2 percent of GDP.

“I don’t know any politician in Germany who thinks that this would be reachable or desirable,” Gabriel said.

The allies’ agreement to boost spending is a loose set of guidelines, but is not binding, Gabriel argued.

Germany is increasing its military spending this year to $39 billion, or 1.2 percent of its GDP. Gabriel rejected the Trump administration’s focus on military expenditures, arguing that humanitarian aid and Germany’s spending to take in refugees should be considered part of the defense budget.

Other foreign ministers were more accepting of the Trump administration’s pressure to step up defense spending. Several countries have signaled they will start spending 2 percent of GDP before the 2024 deadline. Romania says it will reach 2 percent this year.

In private talks with the ministers, Tillerson harshly criticized Russian “aggression” and “intimidation” in Ukraine and pointedly blamed Russia for a recent escalation in violence there. He said, twice, that U.S. sanctions slapped on Moscow as punishment would remain in place. This was significant because in his previous career as CEO of ExxonMobil, Tillerson had lobbied against the sanctions, which he said were causing the firm to lose money on exploration deals in Russia.

Several ministers from Eastern European countries said they were reassured by Tillerson’s rebuke of Russia. There have been concerns that Trump would seek closer ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Baltic countries Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia see Russia’s intervention in Ukraine as a particular threat.

Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser also seemed satisfied. “When it comes to security and defense, I think we are going to see much more continuity than perhaps we expected,” Mikser said. “I think we may see greater or a bigger departure from (former President) Obama’s policies in other areas” such as trade and environmental policy.

Tillerson also called on allies to take a greater role in the fight against terrorism.

“NATO can and should do more,” he said. “Fighting terrorism is the top national security priority for the United States, as it should be for all of us.”

Ministers said they wanted to hear specific proposals for the fight on terrorism.

“There is a willingness to involve NATO more,” Rinkevics said. “What would be very good is that we also use those two months (until the May meeting) not only talking about defense spending, which is very important, but also preparing more concrete decisions.”

Tillerson’s earlier announcement that he would skip the ministerial meeting struck a nerve among the alliance members, coming at a sensitive time when tensions between the Trump administration and NATO allies have soared.

The schedule change caused an awkward protocol shuffle, with a handful of foreign ministers unable to make it to Brussels.

British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson described Tillerson’s message as the need to adapt.

“The reason (NATO) is the most successful alliance in history is because it’s continually been able to adapt,” Johnson said. “Obviously we face new challenges now from Russia, a resurgent Russia getting up to all kinds of mischief in the Western Balkans and elsewhere. . The crucial message . is that as NATO adapts and faces new challenges, we have to fund this organization properly.”

Stoltenberg praised what he described as “trans-Atlantic unity.” “The meeting today was important because it was one meeting in a series of meetings where the new U.S. administration has come to Europe and expressed strong commitment to NATO, to the transatlantic bond,” Stoltenberg said.

“I believe it’s very important to remember that fair burden-sharing or increased defense spending across Europe and Canada is not just something you have to do to please the United States,” he added. “It is about investing in our own security, in the security of Europe, because Europe is very close to the turmoil, the violence in North Africa, Iraq, Syria, and we’re closer also to Russia.”

PHOTO (for help with images, contact 312-222-4194): TILLERSON </s> BRUSSELS — Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday ratcheted up pressure on NATO allies to increase their defense spending, amid pushback from Germany’s top diplomat over President Donald Trump’s single-minded effort to boost the military budgets of members of the Western military alliance.

The meeting of NATO’s 28 foreign ministers – hastily rescheduled after Tillerson initially announced he would skip it in favor of a meeting with China’s leader – came amid fears of U.S. commitment to the alliance following Trump’s calls to increase spending. Tillerson said he wanted NATO leaders to agree at a May summit to come up with concrete plans by the end of the year to meet budget guidelines.

“As President Trump has made clear, it is no longer sustainable for the U.S. to maintain a disproportionate share of NATO’s defense expenditures,” Tillerson told the foreign ministers. “Allies must increase defense spending.”

The effort came after resistance from German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who said that the push from Washington was unrealistic and based on a mistaken interpretation of the spending targets, which are not binding. Germany is NATO’s largest economy after the United States, but it lags far behind in its defense spending. Twisting Berlin’s arm to increase its military efforts is key to Trump’s effort to pass some of Europe’s defense burdens back to U.S. partners.

“More money doesn’t mean more security,” said Gabriel, who is a member of Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party and has long been skeptical of defense spending increases. He said that to expect Germany to reach NATO spending guidelines would require an additional $37 billion a year and was “totally unrealistic.” NATO leaders have pledged to increase annual defense outlays to two percent of their gross domestic products by 2024, but the targets were not requirements.

After Trump met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in mid-March, he wrote on Twitter that “Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!”

Merkel and her center-right Christian Democratic allies, who rule in a coalition with Gabriel’s center-left party, have been more willing than Gabriel to entertain Trump’s requests. Defense increases are broadly unpopular in Germany ahead of September elections, and some of Gabriel’s aggressive push was for domestic consumption. But he rejected out of hand Tillerson’s proposal that nations create spending plans with specific, year-by-year targets, setting up a showdown for the May summit.

NATO diplomats said that the closed-door meetings with Tillerson were cordial. But some quietly criticized him for spending less than five hours on the ground in Brussels before returning to the United States before the meetings fully finished. Previous secretaries of state have often given news conferences at the end of such conclaves; Tillerson took no questions in Brussels.

Many diplomats counted it as a victory to have convinced Tillerson to come in the first place. The gathering was initially scheduled for next week, overlapping with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Florida to meet Trump. Tillerson planned to skip the NATO event, meaning that he would have met with Chinese and Russian leaders before he met with his alliance counterparts.

“Going to Moscow before seeing members of the alliance did not go down well,” a senior NATO diplomat said ahead of the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity to talk frankly about allied perceptions of the Trump administration.

Tillerson also repeated U.S. desires for NATO to do more to fight terrorism, but he offered no concrete requests and said that the Trump administration was still working on specific roles in which NATO could do more. Although NATO has increased training for Iraqi troops and offered its AWACS surveillance planes to help efforts to defeat the Islamic State, many alliance nations remain skeptical that NATO’s structures are well-suited for counterterrorism.

Skeptical diplomats say that the intelligence agencies and police forces of individual NATO nations are better-adapted to fighting domestic terrorism threats. Direct intervention on the ground in Syria and Iraq may be most effective if countries offer their militaries on an individual basis rather than in a joint effort through NATO structures, they say.
U.S. President Donald Trump states that Germany is "delinquent" on NATO defense, saying, "So they are giving Russia billions of dollars yet we are supposed to protect Germany and Germany is delinquent! Okay?" (Al Arabiya)