MADRID: European Union leaders on Friday downplayed skepticism from US President Donald Trump about solidarity among NATO members a day after they backed plans to spend more on defense amid wavering US support.
After European leaders committed Thursday to freeing up hundreds of billions of euros for security, Trump said he was “not so sure” that the military alliance would come to the United States’ defense if the country were attacked.
“We are loyal and faithful allies,” French President Emmanuel Macron said late Thursday in response, expressing “respect and friendship” toward US leaders and adding that France was “entitled to expect the same.”
Māris Riekstins, Latvia’s ambassador to NATO, stressed the military alliance remained the most important platform for addressing transatlantic security issues. He emphasized the commitment from his country — which shares a nearly 300-kilometer (186-mile) border with Russia — to defense spending.
The Baltic country last month said spending should be increased to 4 percent of GDP next year and move toward 5 percent.
Trump’s repeated warnings that he would make European allies face the threat of Russia alone has spurred countries that for decades faltered on defense spending to find ways to bolster their security and back Ukraine in its war against Russia.
On Thursday, EU leaders signed off on a move to loosen budget restrictions so that willing EU countries could increase their military spending.
Following the emergency talks in Brussels, Trump again suggested that the US could abandon its NATO commitments if member countries didn’t meet the alliance’s defense spending targets. He expressed doubt that other allies will come to the defense of the US — though they have done so after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the only instance in which the Article 5 mutual defense guarantee was invoked.
The US president has criticized the alliance for years, arguing that European members have not contributed enough toward their own security.
In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his country would raise defense spending to reach NATO’s target faster than previously committed. But he did not specify when the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy — and NATO laggard — would hit the 2 percent of GDP military spending target.
Spain spent an estimated 1.28 percent of GDP on defense last year. Italy and Belgium also spent less than the 2 percent target last year, according to NATO estimates.
NATO members pledged in 2014 to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defense, which 23 countries were expected to meet last year amid concerns about the war in Ukraine. Spain, which ranked last among NATO members for the share of GDP it contributed to the military, previously said it would reach that target by 2029.
Sánchez emphasized Spain’s commitment to European security and to backing Ukraine — though he stated that the security threats faced by the southern European nation were of a different nature than what European allies on the bloc’s eastern front face from Russia.
Still, he said, “it’s clear that we all have to make an effort and an accelerated effort.”
Though he did not name Trump, the Spanish leader on Thursday argued for a stronger, more unified Europe, saying that “while some (leaders) raise walls and tariffs, we build bridges and close trade agreements.”
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni made comments that appeared to backtrack on previous support for Ukraine joining NATO. She argued that extending the alliance’s mutual defense guarantees to Ukraine without granting it membership would ensure “stable, lasting and effective security.”
Sweden on Friday marked its first anniversary as a member of NATO, with posts on social platform X from Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
Neither mentioned Trump’s comments but focused on “a more secure Sweden and a stronger NATO.”
European leaders downplay skepticism from Trump about NATO solidarity
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European leaders downplay skepticism from Trump about NATO solidarity
- Māris Riekstins, Latvia’s ambassador to NATO, stressed the military alliance remained the most important platform for addressing transatlantic security issues
- In Spain, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said his country would raise defense spending to reach NATO’s target faster than previously committed
Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as fighting enters fourth day
- The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years
- Pakistan accuses Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it
KABUL: Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on Bagram Air Base, the former US military base north of Kabul, authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.
The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years, with Pakistan declaring that it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan.
The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.
Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkiye in November failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally traded fire since then.
On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at around 5 a.m.
The statement said Afghan forces responded with “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart the attack.
There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing fighting.
Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took control in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021. Last year, US President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to reestablish a US presence at the base.
The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.
Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan had said only civilians were killed.
The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over the years.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan denies.
After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”
In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own casualties at drastically lower numbers.
Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a 32-square-kilometer area in the southern Zhob sector near Kandahar province, after having seized it during fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”
Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into Sunday in the border areas.
The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.
Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia province.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani officials.
