Brussels: United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday took an aim at fellow NATO ally Germany, calling it a “captive” of Russia because of its energy dealings.
Germany is “totally controlled by Russia” because of its dependence on Russian natural gas.
The United States spends heavily to defend Germany from Russia and “Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia,” the New York Times, quoted Trump, as saying at his first meeting of the summit, with the Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.
“I think it’s something that NATO has to look at,” Trump added.
According to several media reports, Trump apparently referred to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that would bring gas from Russia to Germany’s northeastern Baltic coast, bypassing the Eastern European nations like Poland and Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the US president, who is on a seven-day, three-nation European trip, also used to occasion to label alliance members “delinquent” on military spending, the report said. (ANI)