Trump's Nato approach helped make a difference, says May

Theresa May has defended Donald Trump’s approach to last week’s Nato summit, claiming it made all the difference in encouraging European allies to “step up” their defence spending.

The US president left the Brussels talks in disarray after setting a January deadline for other alliance members to increase defence spending and hinting that the US may quit Nato if they failed to do so.

For the second year in a row, Trump caused turmoil at a Nato summit, criticising the Germans, turning up late for a meeting, ignoring the issues on the table and securing an emergency discussion on spending.

But on Monday in the Commons, May praised his approach despite the extraordinary interview he gave just hour later to the Sun that undermined her Brexit strategy and humiliated her personally.

“We share his view that we want to see allies all stepping up to meet the commitment they gave at the summit in Wales in 2014 to spend 2% of their GDP on defence and 20% of that on equipment,” she told MPs.

“It’s something we meet and a limited number of other members of Nato meet, including the United States of America. [Trump’s] making this point about burden-sharing has made a difference.

“Just in the last year we’ve seen an extra $41bn added to defence budgets across the Nato allies and there was a real sense at this summit, following the discussion that he initiated, that we would see people not just stepping up in terms of going to meet their 2%, but seeing that there was an increased urgency in doing this.”

Trump also clashed with Angela Merkel over German’s proposed pipeline deal with Russia, saying it was “totally inappropriate” for Berlin to buy billions of dollars worth of oil and gas while failing to meet Nato’s 2% defence spending target.

The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said the summit had been dominated by Trump’s “erratic” statements and warned the government against allowing its policies to be “outsourced to the whims of Washington”.

The SNP’s leader at Westminster, Ian Blackford, accused the US president of embarrassing behaviour at Nato and of taking a childish approach to foreign and security matters.

May said western allies must continue to deter and counter Russia’s efforts to undermine their interests and values. “But as I agreed with President Trump in our discussions last week, we must engage from a position of unity and strength,” she said.

“This means being clear and unwavering about where Russia needs to change its behaviour, and for as long as Russia persists in its efforts to undermine our interests and values, we must continue to deter and counter them.”