U.S. President Donald Trump says the U.S. commitment to NATO "remains very strong" despite reports that he threated to pull out in a dispute over defense spending.
Trump says at a news conference Thursday in Brussels that he told "people" that he would be "very unhappy" if they didn’t increase their commitments.
Trump says the U.S. has been paying "probably 90 percent of the costs of NATO."
Trump adds that he was "extremely unhappy with what was happening and they have substantially upped their commitment."
NATO had no immediate comment.
Trump once declared NATO "obsolete." He says Thursday: "I believe in NATO."
French President Emmanuel Macron has denied reports that U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw the United States from the NATO military alliance in a dispute over funding.
"President Trump never at any moment, either in public or in private, threatened to withdraw from NATO," Macron told reporters.
He said the leaders of the alliance’s 29 members met in an extraordinary session on Thursday morning at the request of NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.
Trump has complained that many NATO members are lagging behind in their defense spending.
