NATO-Gipfel: Das geht ja gut los. (neu: Transkript Trump)

Der NATO-Gipfel in Brüssel hat am (heutigen) Mittwoch noch nicht mal offiziell begonnen, da setzt US-Präsident Donald Trump schon mal den Ton. Mit deutlichen Vorwürfen in Richtung Deutschland.

Einfach mal reinhören in dieses Video. Seine ganzen Aussagen waren noch etwas länger, aus dem Transkript:

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I have to say, I think it’s very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where you’re supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia. So we’re protecting Germany. We’re protecting France. We’re protecting all of these countries. And then numerous of the countries go out and make a pipeline deal with Russia, where they’re paying billions of dollars into the coffers of Russia.So we’re protect you against Russia, but they’re paying billions of dollars to Russia, and I think that’s very inappropriate. And the former Chancellor of Germany is the head of the pipeline company that’s supplying the gas. Ultimately, Germany will have almost 70 percent of their country controlled by Russia with natural gas.
So you tell me, is that appropriate? I mean, I’ve been complaining about this from the time I got in. It should have never been allowed to have happened. But Germany is totally controlled by Russia, because they will be getting from 60 to 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline. And you tell me if that’s appropriate, because I think it’s not, and I think it’s a very bad thing for NATO and I don’t think it should have happened. And I think we have to talk to Germany about it.
On top of that, Germany is just paying a little bit over 1 percent, whereas the United States, in actual numbers, is paying 4.2 percent of a much larger GDP. So I think that’s inappropriate also. You know, we’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France. We’re protecting everybody. And yet we’re paying a lot of money to protect.
Now, this has been going on for decades. This has been brought up by other presidents. But other presidents never did anything about it because I don’t think they understood it or they just didn’t want to get involved.
But I have to bring it up, because I think it’s very unfair to our country. It’s very unfair to our taxpayer. And I think that these countries have to step it up not over a 10-year period; they have to step it up immediately. Germany is a rich country. They talk about they’re going to increase it a tiny bit by 2030. Well, they could increase it immediately tomorrow and have no problem. I don’t think it’s fair to the United States.
So we’re going to have to do something because we’re not going to put up with it. We can’t put up with it. And it’s inappropriate.
So we have to talk about the billions and billions of dollars that’s being paid to the country that we’re supposed to be protecting you against. You know, everybody is talking about it all over the world. They’ll say, well, wait a minute, we’re supposed to be protecting you from Russia, but why are you paying billions of dollars to Russia for energy? Why are countries in NATO, namely Germany, having a large percentage of their energy needs paid to Russia and taken care of by Russia?
Now, if you look at it, Germany is a captive of Russia because they supply. They got rid of their coal plants. They got rid of their nuclear. They’re getting so much of the oil and gas from Russia. I think it’s something that NATO has to look at. I think it’s very inappropriate. You and I agree that it’s inappropriate. I don’t know what you can do about it now, but it certainly doesn’t seem to make sense that they paid billions of dollars to Russia and now we have to defend them against Russia.

Und es scheint, dass sich nicht nur der US-Präsident auf Deutschland als Sündenbock eingeschossen hat – das hier aus einer Begleitveranstaltung des Gipfels:

Eine erste Reaktion von Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel gibt es auch schon – bei der Vorfahrt zum Gipfel:

… und deshalb schauen wir gespannt nicht nur auf den Fortgang des Gipfeltreffens, sondern auch auf das für den Nachmittag angekündigte bilaterale Treffen von Merkel und Trump:

 

(Weiter nach Entwicklung)

(Aufmacherfoto: NATO-Generalsekretär Jens Stoltenberg beim Arbeitsfrühstück mit Trump – Foto NATO)