WASHINGTON
— President Trump said on Wednesday that Russia likely knew of the
Syrian government’s plan to gas its own people in advance of a chemical
weapons attack last week in northwestern Syria, asserting that United
States relations with Moscow were at an “all-time low.”
Asked
whether it was possible that Syrian forces could have launched the
chemical attack without Russia’s knowledge, Mr. Trump said: “It’s
certainly possible; I think it’s probably unlikely.”
“I
would like to think that they didn’t know, but certainly they could
have. They were there,” Mr. Trump said of the Russians during a news
conference at the White House with Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary
general of NATO.
The
remarks amounted to an explosive suggestion at a time of heightened
tension between the United States and Russia after the chemical attack,
which was followed by American missile strikes on the airfield in Syria
from which it was launched.
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Even
as they have intensified their criticism of Russia for backing
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, other senior Trump administration
officials, including Jim Mattis, the secretary of defense, and Rex W.
Tillerson, the secretary of state, have been careful to say there is no
evidence proving that Moscow had foreknowledge the Assad regime planned
to launch a sarin gas assault.
“Right
now, we’re not getting along with Russia at all — we may be at an
all-time low in terms of relationship with Russia,” Mr. Trump said on
Wednesday. “This has built for a long period of time, but we’re going to
see what happens.”
The
remarks were the latest evidence of Mr. Trump’s turnabout on President
Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, a leader he praised during the presidential
campaign but has now moved to isolate since the Syrian chemical weapons
attack.
Mr.
Trump also made a stark reversal on NATO, which he derided as obsolete
during his bid for the White House, but said Wednesday had transformed
into an effective alliance since he took office.
“I
said it was obsolete; it’s no longer obsolete,” Mr. Trump said during
the 30-minute appearance with Mr. Stoltenberg. He called NATO a “great
alliance” and “the bulwark of international peace and security.”
Mr.
Trump attributed his change of heart to unspecified transformations
within NATO that he said were a direct response to criticism he had
leveled that the alliance was not doing enough to combat terrorism.
“I complained a long time about that,” Mr. Trump said, “and they changed.”
It
was not clear what the president was referring to; NATO forces have
been fighting alongside the United States in Afghanistan for more than a
decade, an effort focused on combating terrorist groups including the
Taliban.
His comments came hours after a senior White House official said the Trump administration had supported the admission of Montenegro
into NATO in part to counter the influence of Russia in the small
Balkan nation. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official
cited “credible reports” that Moscow backed a plot for a violent
Election Day attack there last fall.
Mr.
Trump on Tuesday signed the paperwork allowing Montenegro to enter
NATO, two weeks after the Senate approved the move in a March 28 vote.
Its admission, White House officials said
in a statement, should signal to other nations aspiring to join the
alliance that “the door to membership in the Euro-Atlantic community of
nations remains open and that countries in the Western Balkans are free
to choose their own future and select their own partners without outside
interference or intimidation.”
But
the official said Russia’s meddling in Montenegro and Ukraine, as well
as its actions in Syria, would be a strong theme in Mr. Trump’s NATO
discussions, most likely highlighting the president’s commitment to a
mutual defense alliance that he questioned before taking office. During
the meetings, the administration said, Mr. Trump and Mr. Stoltenberg
will talk about the need for Russia to cease its interference in eastern
Ukraine and support peace efforts there.
The new dynamic is a substantial shift
from Mr. Trump’s stance during his presidential campaign, when he often
questioned the usefulness of NATO and regularly praised Mr. Putin.
On
Wednesday, White House officials said, the president planned to express
an ironclad commitment to the alliance even as he explored ways to
pressure member nations to pour more money into their military budgets
to help shoulder the burden of securing the North Atlantic.
Mr.
Trump has often argued that NATO members cheat the United States by
refusing to spend enough to defend themselves. Last month, after a visit
by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, he said that her country owed “vast sums” to the alliance and should pay the United States more for protection.
The
Trump administration wants all NATO allies to deliver a plan by the end
of the year on how they will meet a pledge agreed to in 2014 that
member nations would move toward devoting 2 percent of their gross
domestic products to their military budgets by 2024, with at least 20
percent to be spent on equipment procurement and research and
development.
Mr.
Trump and Mr. Stoltenberg were also to discuss NATO’s role in
supporting the fight against the Islamic State and other terrorist
groups, as well as military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, White
House officials said.
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