President Donald Trump is reported to be is considering a shake-up of NATO’s design to punish members who do not meet his funding demands, reported the Telegraph. The US president is examining a “pay-to-play model” that could block allies from decision-making, including when the bloc goes to war. It is one of several ideas Mr. Trump is weighing up after allies rejected his demand to send warships to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. In other words, Trump wants to reshape the alliance so that it responds to his every demand, even to go to war with Iran.
“The frustration we’ve had with the Europeans has been very real,” said an administration source. “Any country that’s not paying 5 per cent shouldn’t be allowed to vote on future expenditures at NATO.” Under the proposals being considered by Mr Trump, NATO allies that do not meet the new target could be frozen out of decisions on expansion, joint missions and triggering the Article 5 mutual defense clause. “You shouldn’t be able to vote to spend future money if you’re not paying,” a US source added. “We need to start the conversation about what is a threat and what does the alliance do. We have to send the message that what Spain and the UK did is unacceptable.”
Things aren’t going so well, either, with Trump’s plan to reshape the United Nations in his image—a project that goes by the Board of Peace. Indicative is the laconic reply provided by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked by TASS if Russia had yet decided whether or not to join the Board of Peace.
“No, there is no such decision,” Peskov said. “We see that on the whole, while the war [in the Middle East] is underway, the ‘Board of Peace’ phrase is probably now less up-to-date than it was before the start of this war,” Peskov noted. “We probably need to wait until what its end will be,” he added.
