At NATO Summit in Brussels headquarters the U.S. President Donald Trump  called allies for fair sharing of the defense spending in face of the growing terrorist threat.

“Terrorism must be stopped in its tracks, or the horror you saw in Manchester and so many other places will continue forever,” Trump said, referring to the suicide bombing that killed 22 people, including children, and left many injured.

In his speech, Trump pointed out that  certain member countries owed “massive amounts of money” to the American tax-payers. “…NATO members must finally contribute their fair share,” Trump underlined.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg defended Trump, saying that although he was “blunt” he had “a very plain and clear message on the expectations” of allies.

The request of  fair burden-sharing within the Aliiance is not new as such, it has been debated for a long time, defining the Europeans as the ‘consumers’ or ‘dependents’ of the US defence system, however none of the US presidents have articulated the request in such a clear-cut form.  As counter-argument the Europeans consider they ‘pay’ with their participation in the US-led campaigns.

The NATO Secretary General Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg repeatedly stated that in its entire history the Article 5 of the collective defence was recalled once to support the US in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and join the American troops in fighting terrorism in Afghanistan.