© Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States remains "fully committed" to the defense of NATO's Eastern European members.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States remains "fully committed" to the defense of NATO's Eastern European members.
"I want our NATO partners to be clear where we stand. This administration, like every single administration Republican or Democratic alike since 1949, remains fully committed to the NATO alliance and to our security commitments" under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which states that an attack on any member state is considered an attack on every NATO member, he said in Washington on July 21.
Kerry added that this commitment is "absolutely bedrock to our membership" in NATO.
The top U.S. diplomat was responding to remarks by U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in an interview with The New York Times on July 20, saying if he were president he would not automatically come to the aid of the Baltic states if they were invaded by Russia.
Trump said he would first review whether such countries had "fulfilled their obligations to us" before deciding whether to come to their aid in the event of an attack by Russia.
Comment: Trump seems to speaking from the view of NATO as a business (which it is, an arms business), with some departments not pulling their weight. Trump is basically saying if he's president he will scrap the mutual defense clause. That's huge. (Not that he's serious or that he'd actually be able to do it). It's hilarious that Trump is making a fool of himself, saying what everyone wants to hear, and people like Kerry have to run around apologizing for all his outrageous statements (which people actually like, because many of them make sense.)
Graham's assessment is overblown. Putin's remarks on Donald Trump are a realistic assessment of the person he may have to deal with in the future.