Macron Denies Claims Trump Threatened to Leave NATO During Summit

PARIS (Sputnik) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday refuted media reports claiming that US President Donald Trump threatened that the United States would withdraw from NATO during the alliance's summit in Brussels.

"I do not ever discuss behind-the-scenes conversations. But President Trump has never said he may leave NATO, neither during bilateral nor during multilateral negotiations," Macron said at a press conference which concluded the summit, as aired on Periscope.

Earlier in that day, leaders of the NATO members states held an emergency meeting during the summit to discuss the defense spending issue.

Since taking office in early 2017, Trump has withdrawn the United States from a number of major multilateral agreements, such as the Paris Agreement and Iran nuclear deal. Moreover, Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO as an obsolete organization and blasted EU allies over their failure to meet defense spending targets, prompting speculation that the US president might pull his country out of the military alliance.

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These speculations reached their peak during the Brussels summit, held on Wednesday and Thursday, with media reporting that Trump, during a closed-door meeting, had threatened his allies that the United States would pull out from NATO if they did not increase their defense spending.