BRUSSELS: US President Donald Trump on Thursday intensified his accusations that NATO allies were not spending enough on defense and said more attacks such as this week’s bombing in Manchester would take place unless the alliance did more to stop militants.
In unexpectedly abrupt remarks as NATO leaders stood alongside him, Trump also said certain member countries owed “massive amounts of money” to the United States and NATO.
His scripted comments contrasted with NATO’s choreographed efforts to play up the West’s unity by inviting Trump to unveil a memorial to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States at the new NATO headquarters.
“We will never waiver in our determination to defeat terrorism and achieve lasting security, prosperity and peace,” Trump said in the speech before a dinner with leaders.
“Terrorism must be stopped or...the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever,” Trump said, referring to Monday’s suicide bombing in the northern English city that killed 22 people, including children.
Trump called on NATO, an organization founded on collective defense against the Soviet threat, to include limiting immigration in its tasks as well as fighting terrorism and deterring Russia.
NATO leaders wanted Trump on Thursday to publicly support the military alliance that he had called “obsolete” during his campaign. But he instead returned to an old grievance about Europe’s drop in defense spending since the end of the Cold War.
Spending dispute
“Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying for their defense,” Trump said, standing by a piece of the wreckage of the Twin Towers.
“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,” Trump said as the other leaders watched.
Praise was always going to be in shorter supply at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after Trump’s sharp election campaign criticism of the alliance, which he blamed for not doing more to combat terrorism.
Leaders had hoped for more, although a White House official insisted Trump, by being a member of the alliance, supported NATO’s collective defense clause, which stipulates that an attack on one ally is an attack against all.
Before Trump spoke, Belgium’s premier Charles Michel said it was time to “defend the values of the free world” while German Chancellor Angela Merkel said NATO was central to the West’s security.
NATO still strived to impress Trump with military bands, allied jets flying overhead and a walk through the new glass-and-steel headquarters, which replaces a leaking, 1960s prefab structure.
Trump, a real estate magnate, called the building “beautiful” and joked that he did not dare ask how much it cost.
But it was left to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to carry through most of the planned pomp and to try to hammer home the message of unity.
“NATO is more than a club, more than an organization. NATO embodies the unique bond between Europe and North America,” Stoltenberg said. “As we raise our flags today, our alliance stands strong united and resolute,” he said.
In one nod to Trump, NATO leaders are due to agree later on Thursday for the Western military bloc to join the US-led, 68-nation coalition against Daesh in Syria and Iraq.
Trump scolds NATO allies, warns of unending fight against militants
Trump scolds NATO allies, warns of unending fight against militants
World copper rush promises new riches for Zambia
CAPE TOWN: Five years after becoming Africa’s first Covid-era debt defaulter, Zambia is seeing a dramatic turnaround in fortunes as major powers vie for access to its vast reserves of copper.
Surging demand from the artificial intelligence, green energy and defense sectors has exponentially boosted demand for the workhorse metal that underpins power grids, data centers and electric vehicles.
The scramble for copper exposes geopolitical rivalries as industrial heavyweights — including China, the United States, Canada, Europe, India and Gulf states — compete to secure supplies.
“We have the investors back,” President Hakainde Hichilema told delegates at the African Mining Indaba conference on Monday, saying that more than $12 billion had flowed into the sector since 2022.
The politically stable country is Africa’s second-largest copper producer, after the conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo, and the world’s eighth, according to the US Geological Survey.
The metal, needed for solar panels and wind turbines, generates about 15 percent of Zambia’s GDP and more than 70 percent of export earnings.
Output rose eight percent last year to more than 890,000 metric tons and the government aims to triple production within a decade.
Mining is driving growth that is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to reach 5.2 percent in 2025 and 5.8 percent this year, which places Zambia among the continent’s faster-growing economies.
“The seeds are sprouting and the harvest is coming,” Hichilema said, touting a planned nationwide geological survey to map untapped deposits.
But the rapid expansion of the heavily polluting industry has also led to warnings about risks to local communities and concerns of “pit-to-port” extraction, in which raw copper is shipped directly abroad with little domestic refining.
’Dramatic new chapter’
“We need to be aware of the potential for history to repeat itself,” said Daniel Litvin, founder of the Resource Resolutions group that promotes sustainable development, referring to the colonial-era scramble for Africa’s resources.
There is a risk that elites will be enriched at the expense of the broader population, while “narratives of partnership” offered by major powers can mask underlying self-interest, he said.
Chinese firms have long dominated the sector in Zambia and control major stakes in key mines and smelters, cementing Beijing’s early-mover advantage.
Another major player is Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, Zambia’s largest corporate taxpayer.
Investors from India and the Gulf are expanding their footprint, and the United States is returning to the market after largely pulling out decades ago.
Washington, which has been stockpiling copper, this month launched a $12 billion “Project Vault” public-private initiative to secure critical minerals, part of an effort to reduce reliance on China.
In September, the US Trade and Development Agency announced a $1.4 million grant to a Metalex Commodities subsidiary, Metalex Africa, to expand operations in Zambia.
“We are at the beginning of what is going to unfold to be a dramatic new chapter in the way that the free world sources and trades in critical minerals,” US energy secretary adviser Mike Kopp said at Mining Indaba.
Sweeping US tariffs introduced last year helped send copper prices soaring to record highs, as companies rushed to buy both semi-finished and refined stocks.
Cost of rush
“The risk is that this great power competition becomes a race to secure supply on terms that serve markets and not the people in producer countries,” said Deprose Muchena, a program director at the Open Society Foundation.
Despite its mineral wealth, more than 70 percent of Zambia’s 21 million people live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
“The world is waking up to Zambia’s copper. But Zambia has been living with copper and its consequences for a century,” Muchena told AFP.
Environmental damage caused by mining has long plagued Zambia’s copper belt.
In February 2025, a burst tailings dam at a Chinese-owned mine near Kitwe, about 285 kilometers (180 miles) north of Lusaka, spilled millions of liters of acidic waste.
Toxins entered a tributary feeding the Kafue, Zambia’s longest river and a major source of drinking water. Zambian farmers have filed an $80 billion lawsuit.
“Whether this boom is different depends on whether governance, rights, and community agency are at the center, not just supply chain security,” Muchena said.
