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US President Donald Trump said on 9 June that he backs the NATO charter's demand that all members be prepared to defend each other, weeks after jarring allies by not restating US support for the agreement. At a joint news conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, Trump said he supports the NATO charter's Article 5, the requirement that each member of the alliance defend each other if they come under attack.
A senior White House official later had said the United States does in fact support Article 5 simply by agreeing to the terms of the charter. But having not mentioned it himself, Trump sowed some doubts among allies and the ensuing controversy prompted Vice President Mike Pence to later express explicit US support for the charter.
"I'm committing the United States to Article 5 and certainly we are there to protect and that's one of the reasons that I want people to make sure we have a very, very strong force by paying the kind of money necessary to have that force," Trump said. He added:
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