{"id":39869,"date":"2018-07-06T16:37:41","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T16:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/07\/06\/us-lawmakers-want-trump-in-step-with-nato-at-brussels\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:00:03","slug":"us-lawmakers-want-trump-in-step-with-nato-at-brussels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/smr\/nato-priorities\/2018\/07\/06\/us-lawmakers-want-trump-in-step-with-nato-at-brussels\/","title":{"rendered":"US lawmakers want Trump in step with NATO at Brussels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 As U.S. President Donald Trump has sent letters to Western leaders<\/a> warning them to increase defense spending, ratcheting up tensions for a NATO alliance in Brussels this week, U.S. lawmakers are urging him to back the alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looming large is Trump\u2019s other summit<\/a>, with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, set for after the Brussels meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said in a tweet on Monday that \u201cthe U.S. must stand firmly with our NATO allies and affirm our transatlantic partnership. Doing otherwise strengthens Putin and undermines democratic values.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For his part, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told CNBC<\/a> he\u2019s not expecting Trump to go on the attack about burden-sharing, as Trump recognizes the issue is moving in the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe good news is that we have started to do exactly that and we have started to see a significant increase,\u201d Stoltenberg said. \u201dOver the past few years we have added $87 billion from Canada and the European allies, and that makes a real difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee next week is set to take up a nonbinding sense-of-the-Senate resolution emphasizing the strategic importance of NATO to the collective security of the transatlantic region \u2014 and urging its member states to cooperate to strengthen the alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of senior Senate Democrats accused Trump in a July 2 letter<\/a> of sending mixed messages ahead of the two summits, though its unlikely Trump will take heed. They are Sens. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the Senate Democratic whip; Mark Warner, D-Va., the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence; and Jack Reed, D-R.I., the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClear U.S. leadership is necessary to counter President Putin\u2019s efforts to undermine the NATO alliance and its founding values,\u201d they wrote. \u201cIt is imperative that you make a strong statement of support for the democratic nations that make up the alliance and make clear that the United States stands with \u2014 not in opposition to \u2014 our oldest and closest allies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t