Donald Trump has declared the Nato military alliance “no longer obsolete” in an embrace that marks a significant change of direction from his campaign rhetoric and comes against a backdrop of rising tensions with Russia.

Hosting Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, at the White House, Trump abandoned his position of lambasting the transatlantic alliance, criticism that had alarmed and confused US allies in Europe.

Instead, Trump on Wednesday called Nato a “bulwark of international peace and security” and attempted to take credit for Nato “now” fighting terrorism and increasing defense spending.

“I said it was obsolete. It’s no longer obsolete,” Trump said.

Stoltenberg seemed content, even relieved, to accept Trump’s open hand, welcoming the “very strong commitment” he said Trump gave to European security in their White House meetings.

Two Trump priorities – shifting the burden of transatlantic defense more equitably to European allies and accelerating Nato counter-terrorism efforts – would be atop the agenda when Trump met other alliance leaders in late May at a Brussels summit, Stoltenberg said.

White House officials previewing Stoltenberg’s arrival had indicated that Trump would display what one called an “ironclad” commitment to the alliance, clearing up lingering uncertainty among allies after Trump derided it while running for president.

Still, Stoltenberg subtly corrected Trump’s portrayal of himself as a force redirecting Nato. Without calling out Trump, Stoltenberg reminded listeners that Nato had invoked its self-defense clause after 9/11 and had sent “hundreds of thousands” of troops to Afghanistan over the past 15 years. And Nato had “turned a corner” on increased burden-sharing, Stoltenberg said, following commitments made in Wales in 2014.

The two leaders spoke shortly after the US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, met with Putin and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, where Tillerson faced anger from the Kremlin over last week’s US missile strike on a Syrian airfield of the Russian-backed Syrian leader, Bashar al-Assad.

White House officials previewing Stoltenberg’s arrival had indicated that Trump would display what one called an ‘ironclad’ commitment to the alliance. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images

Trump called Tillerson’s meeting “very successful”, even though Lavrov publicly rejected the central purpose of the diplomatic mission: to cleave Russia from Assad.

“Removing or ousting any particular personality [from Syria] is not on our agenda,” said Lavrov, who, seated beside Tillerson, accused the US of leaving the terrorist Nusra Front intact so as to preserve a pretext for ousting Assad.

Stoltenberg said the optimal way to deal with Russia was for Nato to be “united, firm and predictable” – the last element of which Trump has rejected as an approach to foreign affairs.

But the typically bombastic Trump had only muted criticism of Putin, whom he again denied knowing on Wednesday, despite telling an interviewer in 2013: “I do have a relationship” with the Russian president.



“It would be a fantastic thing if we got along with Putin and if we got along with Russia. That could happen and it could maybe not happen or just the opposite,” Trump said.

Russia was prominent on the agenda with Stoltenberg, White House officials said, which touched on de-escalating Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and welcoming the Balkan country of Montenegro into the alliance against Russia’s wishes.



“We expect the president and the secretary general to talk about Nato’s approach to Russia, and to emphasize that Russia must uphold all of its commitments under the Minsk agreement to peacefully resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” a White House official said.



White House officials also said they considered “credible” and “concern[ing]” reports of Russian involvement in last October’s coup plot in Montenegro, whose Nato accession Trump certified on Tuesday. Moscow has denied any involvement.

Trump’s myriad connections with Russia are the subject of an FBI investigation and are the central scandal of his administration.

On Tuesday night, the Washington Post revealed that a former Trump foreign policy aide, Carter Page, who was identified as a contact of a Russian spy indicted in 2015, has had his communications monitored by the FBI as an agent of a foreign power. Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort said in a Wednesday statement that he was “taking appropriate steps” to register as an agent of a foreign power for “some of his past political work”, which included aiding a pro-Russia party in Ukraine.

The Republican senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, often a critic of Trump, praised the president’s reversal on Nato.

“Nato is the most successful military alliance in human history. This was the right decision,” Sasse said.