{"id":26156,"date":"2025-03-08T00:53:42","date_gmt":"2025-03-08T00:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/?p=26156"},"modified":"2025-03-08T00:53:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T00:53:43","slug":"eu-leaders-downplayed-skepticism-from-u-s-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/?p=26156","title":{"rendered":"EU leaders downplayed skepticism from U.S. President"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FB_IMG_1741395115186.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-26157\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FB_IMG_1741395115186.jpg 720w, https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/FB_IMG_1741395115186-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>MADRID: \u2014 European Union leaders downplayed skepticism from U.S. President Donald Trump about solidarity among NATO members a day after they backed plans to spend more on defense amid wavering U.S. support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After European leaders committed Thursday to freeing up hundreds of billions of euros for security, Trump said he was \u201cnot so sure\u201d that the military alliance would come to the United States\u2019 defense if the country were attacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are loyal and faithful allies,\u201d French President Emmanuel Macron said late Thursday in response, expressing \u201crespect and friendship\u201d toward U.S. leaders and adding that France was \u201centitled to expect the same.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>M\u0101ris Riekstins, Latvia\u2019s ambassador to NATO, stressed the military alliance remained the most important platform for addressing transatlantic security issues. He emphasized the commitment from his country \u2014 which shares a nearly 300-kilometer (186-mile) border with Russia \u2014 to defense spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Baltic country last month said spending should be increased to 4% of GDP next year and move toward 5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trump\u2019s repeated warnings that he would make European allies face the threat of Russia alone has spurred countries that for decades faltered on defense spending to find ways to bolster their security and back Ukraine in its war against Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On Thursday, EU leaders signed off on a move to loosen budget restrictions so that willing EU countries could increase their military spending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MADRID: \u2014 European Union leaders downplayed skepticism from U.S. President Donald Trump about solidarity among NATO members a day after they backed plans to spend more on defense amid wavering&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":26157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[1880,142,1655],"class_list":["post-26156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-main-stories","tag-donald-trump-president-of-usa","tag-european-union","tag-us-president"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26158,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26156\/revisions\/26158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}