Finland's President Dismisses US NATO Withdrawal Rumors
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Finland's President Alexander Stubb said on Monday that he had not yet heard from anyone serious in the United States administration that the U.S. would withdraw from NATO.
His remarks came shortly after Stubb on Saturday had made a surprise trip to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida, where they discussed different topics and also played a round of golf.
"I am yet to hear from anyone serious inside the U.S. administration, and I stress anyone serious in the U.S. administration, saying that they are somehow withdrawing from NATO," Stubb said at an event at London School of Economics.
"What President Trump is doing now is correct. He is putting pressure on European states to increase their defence expenditure ... and take more responsibility for their own security," Stubb said.
Trump has repeatedly demanded that Europe's NATO members ramp up their defence spending and questioned his country's predominant bankrolling of NATO.
(Reporting by Stine Jacobsen, editing by Louise Rasmussen and Terje Solsvik)
