White House Says Trump Will Attend NATO Heads Of State Meeting In May

President Trump will attend the NATO Heads of State and Government meeting in Brussels, Belgium, the White House announced Tuesday evening. The military alliance has been a frequent target of Trump dating back to the campaign.

"The President looks forward to meeting with his NATO counterparts to reaffirm our strong commitment to NATO, and to discuss issues critical to the alliance, especially allied responsibility-sharing and NATO’s role in the fight against terrorism," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement.

Spicer said that before the meeting in Brussels, which is scheduled for May 25, 2017, Secretary Jens General Stoltenberg will travel to the White House on April 12 to meet with Trump.

"They will talk about how to strengthen the alliance to cope with challenges to national and international security," Spicer said.

Trump has frequently attacked other NATO members for not paying what he says is their fair share.

"Many nations owe vast sums of money from past years, and it is very unfair to the United States," he said last week at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. "These nations must pay what they owe."

The president and members of his administration have said that NATO members have to pay 2 percent of their Gross Domestic Product to NATO.

He stated that case again in a series of tweets over the weekend.

...vast sums of money to NATO & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/realDonald... 18, 2017

The NATO agreement requires members to aim for 2 percent of their GDP with the goal of meeting that by 2024. According to NATO's annual report from last year, Germany spent 1.2 percent of its GDP on defense but has said it plans to spend more in coming years.

Nowhere in the NATO agreement does it say the money goes to NATO. It has a commitment to overall defense spending. The agreement also does not say that if a member doesn't meet the 2 percent goal that it owes that money to the organization.

So, the concept that Germany — or any of the 23 countries that didn't meet the 2 percent goal — owes money, is false.

Photo via The White House