President Trump Says NATO 'Is No Longer Obsolete'

WASHINGTON, DC — President Donald Trump met with Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg of NATO on Wednesday afternoon. After the meeting, the pair delivered a televised joint press conference at 4 p.m. Eastern.

Trump began his remarks by saying how important the organization is. He also repeated he claims that member nations must pay more for NATO's operations; supporters of the argument say this pressure pushes our allies to live up to their responsibilities, while critics have argued that it makes NATO look more like a business deal than a principled alliance. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch for daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

The president said that in his discussions with Stoltenberg, he emphasized NATO must have a larger role in fighting terrorism. "I said it was obsolete," he said, referring to his criticisms of the alliance during the 2016 campaign. "It's no longer obsolete."

Stoltenberg thanked the president for his insistence on "burden-sharing" and said member nations' must redouble their efforts to meet their pledged goals for contributions. He noted that NATO has gone from having five members paying at the levels they've committed to to eight, but there's still a lot more progress to make on this front.

The meeting and press conference marked an important opportunity for the president, as they gave him a chance to reorient himself to the alliance that he called "obsolete" during the 2016 campaign. The press conference also falls on the same day as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's public comments alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Tillerson said at that meeting that Russian-American relations are at a "low point."

Asked whether his view of Putin has changed in the aftermath of the Syrian chemical attacks, Trump echoed Tillerson's comments that Russian-American relations were at an "all-time low." He also said "It would be a great thing if we could get along with Russia and Putin."

"I would love to be able to get along with everybody," he said. Trump also said he has a good meeting with China, and that he hopes they can work together on trade. However, he said that if China won't work with the United States fairly, our country can go it alone. He then added:: "Going it alone means going it with lots of other nations."

He said he "would like to think" Russia didn't know about Syria's chemical weapons attacks in advance, but he noted that investigations into the matter are progressing.

"I have absolutely no doubt we did the right thing," Trump said, referring to the airstrikes against a Syrian airfield.

Stoltenberg said that people who use chemical weapons must be punished, and noted that member states in NATO largely understood why the United States launched strikes against Syria.

Watch a replay of the event below.

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Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images News/Getty Images