Germany rejects Trump claim: ‘There is no debt account at NATO’

by Rebecca Savransky - 03/19/17 8:48 AM ET

Germany is disputing President Trump’s claim that it owes “vast sums of money” to NATO and the U.S.

“There is no debt account at NATO,” German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement, Reuters reported.

“Defense spending also goes into U.N. peacekeeping missions, into our European missions and into our contribution to the fight against [ISIS] terrorism.”

The comments come after Trump on Saturday tweeted that Germany needed to pay more money to NATO.

“Despite what you have heard from the FAKE NEWS, I had a GREAT meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel,” the president tweeted.

{mosads}”Nevertheless, Germany owes … vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!”

In a joint news conference at the White House on Friday, Trump pushed Merkel to meet NATO’s defense spending target — 2 percent of the country’s budget.

“I reiterated to Chancellor Merkel my strong support for NATO as well as the need for our NATO allies to pay their fair share for the cost of defense,” Trump said.

“Many nations owe vast sums of money from past years, and it is very unfair to the United States. These nations must pay what they owe.”

German defense spending is set to increase by 1.4 billion euros to 38.5 billion euros in 2018, Reuters reported.

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