Washington, January 8 (IANS). President Joe Biden has already torn up the agreement granting NATO membership to Ukraine. Newly elected US President Donald Trump has said that he can “understand the feelings of the Russians”.
The next US President once again blamed the Biden administration for Russia launching a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Discussing the reasons for the war, Trump said that the possibility of Ukraine joining NATO “has been a major issue for Russia for many years”.
Trump had previously argued that Biden should not have promised Ukraine NATO membership. The newly elected president claimed that this became a reason for Russia to start a full-scale war.
In 2008, NATO expressed support for Ukraine to join the bloc. However, NATO has not yet granted membership to Ukraine.
Trump also told reporters that he wants NATO members to contribute five percent of their gross domestic product.
He said, “Well, you can’t do it at two percent. If you’re going to have a country and a regular army, you’d better be at four percent. I think they’re in dangerous territory. They can’t afford it.” Can do, but they should be at five percent, not two percent.
He said that if it were not for me, NATO would not even exist now. Because I grew up in countries that weren’t paying their bills, there were 28 countries at the time, 20 of them weren’t paying their bills, and I raised over $680 billion, that was the number Which they gave by saying that if you do not pay, we will not protect you. As soon as I said this, the money started coming. But Obama could say this, other people could say this, Bush could say this. No one said this except me. I had to face a lot of criticism.
–IANS
DKM/KR
