Symbolic imageUS questionnaire tests NATO allies' support for Trump before troop cuts
Washington has circulated a questionnaire among NATO members asking how far they back President Donald Trump's foreign policy, Bloomberg reported on Friday. It comes as the United States prepares deep cuts to its forces in Europe.
Allies reacted extremely negatively to the document, sources told Bloomberg, seeing an attempt to make them demonstrate ideological loyalty in exchange for US protection. The questionnaire follows Washington's review of its military presence in Europe, with deep cuts to troop numbers and weaponry expected by December. Bloomberg judged that linking American commitments to ideological alignment could reshape the transatlantic relationship formed after the Second World War, which rested on US military guarantees that allowed member states to disagree politically without putting the alliance at risk.
Trump revisits Iran
Trump said on Friday that NATO allies had refused to back the United States in its conflict with Iran. "NATO wasn't there for us, by the way," he said, recalling decades of American payments, "money, money, money", and adding: "But we remember." TASS said he has repeatedly criticised allies over their attitude to the US-Israeli attack on Iran.
Other opinions
Russia's state agency TASS carried only Trump's grievance over Iran and did not mention the questionnaire, which the independent Russian outlet Meduza relayed from Bloomberg's report.