News - Middle East: Threats by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump against those NATO member states that do not meet the US-led alliance’s defense spending have sent shiver down Europe’s spine and sparked a new nuclear debate in Germany.

Although NATO-skeptic Trump still has a long and bumpy road ahead due to controversial decisions he made during his 4-year term in the White House, the looming prospect of his winning a second term is serving as food for thought in Europe.
Late last week, he repeated a threat made during his first term in office, saying the US support for NATO was reliant on other members spending at least two percent of the GDP on their military sectors.
Trump also warned he would leave unprotected NATO member states that did not meet its minimum defense spending threshold and that he would even give Russia the green light to attack them.
The 77-year-old isolationist front-runner, who is most likely to be the Republican Party’s candidate for president, claimed at a rally in South Carolina on February 10 that at a meeting with NATO leaders, “a big country” asked him, “Well sir if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia – will you protect us?”
“You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent? … No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills,” Trump said.
His remarks not only drew rebuke from US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, but prompted German leaders to seriously think about the European country’s nuclear capability at a time nuclear-armed Russia been involved in a war with Ukraine for two years.
Katarina Barley, the lead candidate for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats at the European Parliament elections, said on Tuesday the nuclear arms “issue” might need to be discussed.
Her speculative words have triggered a debate on the ultimate deterrent in Germany, where anti-nuclear and pacifist politics are still deeply rooted in its society that rose from the ashes following the country’s defeat in the Second World War.