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AFP
Aboard Air Force One
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday accused NATO allies of defaulting on their defense spending commitments and indicated they should"reimburse" the United States.
"Many countries in NATO, which we are expected to defend, are not only short of their current commitment of 2% (which is low), but are also delinquent for many years in payments that have not been made," he said, tweeting from the air en route to a key NATO summit in Brussels."Will they reimburse the US?"
In recent months Trump has repeatedly launched invective at America's partners in the Atlantic alliance, a cornerstone of European security since World War II, accusing them of freeloading on the US for defence.
The 29 allies are due to restate a commitment to try to spend two percent of GDP on defence by 2024, according to excerpts of their final summit declaration seen by AFP.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday that seven out of 27 European members were on course to spend two percent of GDP on defence in 2018: Britain, Greece, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Lithuania and Romania.
