U.S. President Donald Trump raised doubts about the U.S.’s defense commitments to NATO member states and Japan amid escalating tensions in Europe and Asia.
He made the relevant statements during a press conference at the White House.
Trump criticized the U.S.-Japan alliance, specifically the terms of the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan.
“We have an interesting deal with Japan, that we have to protect them, but they don’t have to protect us…. who makes these deals?” he said, adding that Japan “makes a lot of money,” referring to the trade deficit with Japan.
The security agreement, last revised in 1960, also allows the U.S. to establish and use military bases on Japanese soil. As a result of the treaty, the United States received a kind of outpost in deterring the communist bloc during the Cold War, and continues to be vital for countering threats from China and North Korea. Läs artikel