Trump seems to question U.S. commitment to defending all North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies

Although Montenegro was added to the alliance a year ago, the US president suggested that the USA will not feel obligated to step in and protect the small nation if it went to war with, say, Russia.

Trump gave the interview to Fox News at the end of a European tour that saw him criticised for appearing to accept Russian President Vladimir Putin's insistence that Moscow did not interfere in the 2016 USA elections.

In it, host Carlson asked a hypothetical question: "Let's say Montenegro, which joined past year, is attacked".

TRUMP: I understand what you're saying. Montenegro is a tiny country with very strong people.

Montenegro, a country on the Adriatic coast whose troops number about 2,000 personnel, joined North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in June 2017 despite strong opposition from some and violent demonstrations in 2015.

"Now, I understand, but that's the way it was set up".

"Arizona Sen. McCain, in a tweet on Wednesday, chastised the president for his remarks, saying that "#Putin will do anything to shatter the transatlantic alliance" in a tweet that pointed to an editorial he wrote about the Montenegro coup plot that was first published past year in USA Today.

That being said, Montenegro is in Europe's most geopolitical fraught region and because of this, there is a great amount of truth to what Trump states. "President Trump made worldwide promotion for Montenegro, even though I don't think that was his intention", former Montenegrin foreign minister Milan Rocen said in an email to The Post.

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NATO's common defence clause known as Article 5 has only been invoked once - by America after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Trump questioned whether or not the United States would defend it, as required to do by NATO's founding treaty.

Other presidents including Barack Obama have argued the same point, and many experts agree to the principle that other countries should pay more.

As members of the Yugoslav army, Montenegro's soldiers fought alongside Serbs in Croatia's war of independence.

Rather than instigating World War III with Russia, Montenegro has had to fend off what it describes as a Russian attempt to kill its prime minister in 2016.

Of course, Article 5 only works if aggressor nations (specifically Russia) believe that the U.S.is really serious about it.

The statement also stressed that while building friendly relations with other countries, Montenegro was ready "to boldly and defensively protect and defend our own national interests".

"Let's leave Trump alone", Markovic told a lawmaker who asked him during a parliamentary session Wednesday whether the country of 620,000 should worry about the U.S. commitment to its defense. And Mr. Trump's comments about Montenegro weren't the first time he's appeared hesitant about embracing Article 5. When Mr. Trump suggests that he might not, as he did in his interview with Tucker Carlson, then it becomes easier to imagine the Kremlin invading countries like Estonia. It was used as an example by Tucker Carlson during an interview on Fox News.