Daily Archives: June 28, 2017

NATO Headquarters Brussels, Belgium

4:39 P.M. CEST

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, Secretary General Stoltenberg. Chancellor Merkel, thank you very much. Other heads of state and government, I am honored to be here with members of an alliance that has promoted safety and peace across the world.

Prime Minister May, all of the nations here today grieve with you and stand with you. I would like to ask that we now observe a moment of silence for the victims and families of the savage attack which took place in Manchester. (A moment of silence is observed.) Thank you. Terrible thing.

This ceremony is a day for both remembrance and resolve. We remember and mourn those nearly 3,000 innocent people who were brutally murdered by terrorists on September 11th, 2001. Our NATO allies responded swiftly and decisively, invoking for the first time in its history the Article 5 collective defense commitments.

The recent attack on Manchester in the United Kingdom demonstrates the depths of the evil we face with terrorism. Innocent little girls and so many others were horribly murdered and badly injured while attending a concert -- beautiful lives with so much great potential torn from their families forever and ever. It was a barbaric and vicious attack upon our civilization.

All people who cherish life must unite in finding, exposing, and removing these killers and extremists -- and, yes, losers. They are losers. Wherever they exist in our societies, we must drive them out and never, ever let them back in.

This call for driving out terrorism is a message I took to a historic gathering of Arab and Muslim leaders across the region, hosted by Saudi Arabia. There, I spent much time with King Salman, a wise man who wants to see things get much better rapidly. The leaders of the Middle East have agreed at this unprecedented meeting to stop funding the radical ideology that leads to this horrible terrorism all over the globe.

My travels and meetings have given me renewed hope that nations of many faiths can unite to defeat terrorism, a common threat to all of humanity. Terrorism must be stopped in its tracks, or the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever. You have thousands and thousands of people pouring into our various countries and spreading throughout, and in many cases, we have no idea who they are. We must be tough. We must be strong. And we must be vigilant.

The NATO of the future must include a great focus on terrorism and immigration, as well as threats from Russia and on NATOs eastern and southern borders. These grave security concerns are the same reason that I have been very, very direct with Secretary Stoltenberg and members of the Alliance in saying that NATO members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations, for 23 of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what theyre supposed to be paying for their defense.

This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States. And many of these nations owe massive amounts of money from past years and not paying in those past years. Over the last eight years, the United States spent more on defense than all other NATO countries combined. If all NATO members had spent just 2 percent of their GDP on defense last year, we would have had another $119 billion for our collective defense and for the financing of additional NATO reserves.

We should recognize that with these chronic underpayments and growing threats, even 2 percent of GDP is insufficient to close the gaps in modernizing, readiness, and the size of forces. We have to make up for the many years lost. Two percent is the bare minimum for confronting todays very real and very vicious threats. If NATO countries made their full and complete contributions, then NATO would be even stronger than it is today, especially from the threat of terrorism.

I want to extend my appreciation to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York for contributing this remnant of the North Tower, as well as to Chancellor Merkel and the German people for donating this portion of the Berlin Wall. It is truly fitting that these two artifacts now reside here so close together at the new NATO Headquarters. And I never asked once what the new NATO Headquarters cost. I refuse to do that. But it is beautiful.

Each one marks a pivotal event in the history of this Alliance and in the eternal battle between good and evil. On one side, a testament to the triumph of our ideals over a totalitarian Communist ideology bent on the oppression of millions and millions of people; on the other, a painful reminder of the barbaric evil that still exists in the world and that we must confront and defeat together as a group, as a world.

This twisted mass of metal reminds us not only of what we have lost, but also what forever endures -- the courage of our people, the strength of our resolve, and the commitments that bind us together as one.

We will never forget the lives that were lost. We will never forsake the friends who stood by our side. And we will never waiver in our determination to defeat terrorism and to achieve lasting security, prosperity and peace.

Thank you very much. Its a great honor to be here. Thank you.

END 4:48 P.M. CEST

Original post:
Remarks by President Trump at NATO Unveiling of the Article 5 ...

Donald Trump has pledged to make NATO partners step up their payments. | Getty

By POLITICO Staff

05/27/2017 07:21 AM EDT

President Donald Trump early Saturday tweeted that NATO countries have agreed to step up payments and money is beginning to pour in following his contentious meeting with leaders of the western alliance during his ongoing foreign trip.

Many NATO countries have agreed to step up payments considerably, as they should. Money is beginning to pour in- NATO will be much stronger, he tweeted.

Story Continued Below

Trump on Thursday berated U.S. allies for not spending enough on defense, suggesting they owe massive amounts in back payments to the U.S. under the umbrella of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Over the last eight years, the United States spent more on defense than all other NATO countries combined, he declared as the leaders of other NATO member countries looked on uncomfortably.

However, the commitments are for NATO allies to spend more on defense overall, mainly on their own militaries so the increases would not necessarily be seen at headquarters but in the military budgets of individual countries.

Trump in his Brussels address also declined to confirm the U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the treaty, which guarantees the U.S. would back a treaty partner in the event of a conflict with a foreign power.

Early Saturday, the president also tweeted: Big G7 meetings today. Lots of very important matters under discussion. First on the list, of course, is terrorism. #G7Taormina.

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The U.S. will be the lone holdout on endorsing the Paris accord on climate change when leaders of the G7 will issue their 2017 declaration later Saturday, officials said.

Trump had said he would give European leaders a chance to make their case for the climate change accord, but will make a final decision until returning to Washington on whether his administration will remain committed to the 2015 agreement.

Later Saturday Trump tweeted about trade talks, writing: ""we push for the removal of all trade-distorting practices....to foster a truly level playing field."

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Trump: NATO money 'beginning to pour in' from alliance ...

WASHINGTON The U.S. House of Representatives voted nearly unanimously on Tuesday to reaffirm the NATO alliance's guarantee that all members defend each other, weeks after President Donald Trump raised doubts about Washington's support for the agreement.

The vote was 423-4 in the House, where Trump's fellow Republicans hold a 48-seat majority, for a resolution "solemnly reaffirming" the U.S. commitment to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.

It also supports calls for every NATO member to spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

During a visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels in May that was part of his first overseas trip, Trump pointedly did not mention U.S. support for that critical portion of the NATO charter, rattling allies. Instead, he used a speech there to demand that member states pay more for the alliance's defense.

Trump later said he backed the mutual defense agreement, and other senior officials rushed to express U.S. support.

"With all the threats we and our partners face around the globe, a strong and secure NATO is more important than ever before," Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement.

The resolution was co-sponsored by Ryan and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as the number two Republican and Democrat in the chamber, and the Republican chairman and the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

MOSCOW/KIEV/WASHINGTON A major global cyber attack disrupted computers at Russia's biggest oil company, Ukrainian banks and multinational firms with a virus similar to the ransomware that infected more than 300,000 computers last month .

CARACAS A Venezuelan police helicopter strafed the Supreme Court and a government ministry on Tuesday, escalating the OPEC nation's political crisis in what President Nicolas Maduro called an attack by "terrorists" seeking a coup.

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House overwhelmingly backs NATO mutual defense - Reuters

The following editorial appears on Bloomberg View:

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization has now formally enlisted in the fight against Islamic State. It can begin by helping to stem the flow of refugees trying to reach Europe from North Africa.

This would be more than a humanitarian exercise; it would be a counterterrorism operation. Wherever refugees gather in hopelessness, violent extremists have a fertile recruiting ground. And the number of refugees is staggering.

Nearly 200,000 people fleeing violence and poverty tried to cross of the Mediterranean last year, and at least 5,000 died in the attempt. The U.N. estimates that there are more than half a million refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people in Libya alone. Neither the fractured Libyan government nor the European Union can cope with the numbers, leaving hundreds of thousands of people in makeshift refugee camps some of which are controlled by human traffickers and resemble concentration camps, according to a German government report.

Those who make it across the Mediterranean dont fare much better. Most end up in overcrowded camps in Italy where social services are lacking and applications for asylum languish. Those intercepted in Libyan waters are sent back. Sometimes the traffickers dump their human cargo in the sea to avoid capture.

So what can NATO do? With more than 700 ships at its disposal, a lot.

For starters, it can build on Italian-led Operation Sophia, which has saved thousands of lives but is woefully inadequate to the task. NATOs sophisticated surveillance capabilities, such as long-range patrol airplanes and satellite imagery, can monitor ports in Africa and the Middle East and aid in search-and-rescue efforts. NATO can also help the EUs efforts to professionalize the Libyan coast guard.

The alliance can foster far more naval cooperation and intelligence sharing among its members, and with intergovernmental entities like Interpol. This should also involve another underutilized asset: private shipping companies, which are obligated to respond to other vessels in distress. NATO could also encourage member states build more camps on Mediterranean islands and could aid with construction, perimeter security, health care and the like.

NATO patrols in the Mediterranean could also provide a more direct benefit in the fight against terrorists: stemming the flow of arms from the Middle East to Islamist terrorists in North Africa. Islamic State already has a foothold in Libya and is trying to expand into Tunisia.

Two years ago the civil war in Syria caused the exodus of millions. Now as fighting intensifies, NATO cant afford to make the same mistake.

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Other View: NATO can fight terrorism one sinking boat at a time - Twin Falls Times-News

The Baltic nations and Poland just got some long-awaited NATO boots on the ground, inaugurating new standing battalions last week amid multinational exercises along the Russian border. In the skies above, the Kremlin made sure everyone knew it was watching, sending its warplanes to "buzz" Baltic airspace and even, according to the Lithuanian ministry of defense, to illegally enter it on two occasions.

Finland and Sweden also noted incidents in their vicinities. In a dramatic encounter on June 21, a Polish F-16 approached the plane carrying Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on his way to Kaliningrad, videotaped from aboard the Russian plane. Russian media reported a Russian escort plane intervened between the NATO jet and Shoigu's aircraft.

The same day the US reported a Russian jet flew less than two meters from one of its surveillance planes, which a Pentagon spokesman said was dangerous due to the Russian pilot's "high rate of closure speed and poor control of the aircraft." Sweden summoned Russia's ambassador after a Russian fighter jet flew unusually close to a Swedish reconnaissance plane in international airspace above the Baltic Sea.

NATO notes more Russian 'visitors'

NATO's deputy spokesperson Piers Cavalet confirmed to DW that there was an unusual spike in the Russian air presence over the Baltic Sea last week. "These included strategic bombers, fighters, reconnaissance, transport and other aircraft," Cavalet said, adding that planes operating as part of NATO's air-policing operations or from national air forces followed standard procedure in "scrambling" to monitor the aircraft.

Cavalet rejected Russian accusations that NATO planes are the ones creating tensions, saying "when NATO aircraft intercept a plane they identify it visually, maintaining a safe distance at all times. Once complete, NATO jets break away. All our pilots behave in a safe and responsible way."

NATO says there's been a spike in the number of Russian planes flying too close to allied aircraft

Speaking Monday in Brussels, the chairmanof NATO's military command, General Petr Pavel, added that it's not just the airspace over the Baltic Sea where the spike is evident, but also over the Black Sea.

"In most of these cases we haven't been observing [the flights] would be clearly hostile," Pavel said at an event hosted by Politico. "[W]e are mostly witnessing what we call unprofessional behavior in the airspace. When these rules are broken the chance of getting into an incident is pretty close."

With Russia beginning its own military exercises along its western border in September, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told DW he is concerned about an even higher risk of such accidents then.

World events warrant concern for air clashes

But Thomas Frear, a research fellow with the European Leadership Network, has been writing for years about what he calls the "escalatory potential" of encounters between Russian and Western aircraft and ships. After a decline in tension in 2016 following a 2014/2015 spike, Frear believes the situation has become more critical now, with the stand-off between the US and Russia in Syria.

"The unexpectedly hostile relations between [Russia and] the Trump administration, the ever increasing tempo of military exercises in Europe, and the closer proximity of Russian and coalition aircraft in Syria have combined to drive the number of incidents up again," he told DW.

Frear said that Western authorities are not taking the situation seriously enough, especially the risk to civilian aircraft. "I view this as a combination of complacency and a lack of understanding of the problem," he said, explaining that international regulations governing interaction between aircraft do not apply to military planes.

Neither are national air forces required to be transparent about their rules of behavior with respect to non-military aircraft, Frear said. "[C]ivilian pilots will be unaware of military patterns of behavior," he noted, "risking an accident."

While there are some efforts to change this, Frear said it would require amending the 1944 Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation, a global agreement, making the possibility of any quick action quite remote.

US-Russian tension over Syria worse than Cold War

Frear urges immediate attention to the potential NATO-Russia conflict brewing beyond the Baltics in Syria, where the status of the US-Russian air safety agreement in the country is now uncertain.

"Greater engagement by both Russia and the US-led coalition in Syria has certainly heightened the possibility of a lethal clash," Frear warned, pointing to the fact that NATO ally Turkey already shot down a Russian plane it said crossed into its airspace in 2015. In addition, he said, "Russian and US aircraft have already attacked ground forces allied to the other, leading to rhetoric from military leaders of a bellicosity not seen even at the height of the Cold War."

As well as the need for the Syrian deconfliction agreement to be preserved, Frear said joint groups of experts should be urgently examining how to craft a broader NATO-Russia agreement on avoiding and managing hazardous incidents. In the shortest term, he writes in his report, "there should be zero tolerance for reckless behavior of individual military commanders, pilots and other personnel, especially by the Russian leadership. Use of dangerous military brinkmanship tactics for political signaling is a high-risk strategy, which may backfire in case of an incident."

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NATO says more Russian buzzing of Baltic airspace a risk for deadly mistakes - Deutsche Welle