Political leaders in the Baltic States criticised US President Donald Trump’s recent remarks that he could pull the US out of NATO. Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that such suggestions were “harmful even if not acted upon,” ERR reported. He insisted that NATO benefited both Europe and the US, warning that all allies would lose from weakening the alliance. Tsahkna reminded that 11 Estonian soldiers were killed and over 100 wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief, Estonia’s former prime minister Kaja Kallas, said that Trump’s repeated accusations against NATO and US allies were unfair and hurtful, ERR reported. Trump’s disparaging characterisation of NATO only benefited Russian President Vladimir Putin and other adversaries, Kallas noted. While stressing the need to ensure the continuation of a functioning relationship between allied countries, she reminded that a “relationship was always a two-way street.”
In Lithuania, both President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene expressed full confidence in the NATO alliance and its unity, BNS reported. Echoing a statement by Zanda Kalnina-Lukasevica, deputy speaker of the Latvian parliament, the Saeima, Nauseda noted that US military presence was the strongest deterrence against the threat from Russia, while Ruginiene expressed gratitude to Trump for “pressing the wake-up button” on European defence commitments.