Tri-Service
Trump: US Could Abandon Automatic NATO Protection
The longstanding pillar of the NATO alliance - that members would come to the aid of a member who is attacked - may no longer apply if Donald Trump is elected president.
Mr Trump said the US would only come to the aid of allies if they have "fulfilled their obligations to us", according to the New York Times.
The US has long been pressing its European allies to spend more on defence, with 75% of NATO spending coming from the US.
NATO members' defence spending is supposed to amount to 2% of GDP, but only five out of 28 members met this target last year, according to a NATO report - the US, UK, Poland, Greece, and Estonia.
And according to a Defense News assessment from last year, defence spending has been on the decline, with Belgium, Luxembourg, Hungary and Spain spending less than 1% of GDP on defence.
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