In heated exchange with NATO chief ahead of summit, Trump is fiercely critical of Germany for importing gas from Russia.

US President Donald Trump has told NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that Germany is “captive” to Russia because it is importing energy from there.

In a heated exchange with the NATO chief ahead of a summit in Brussels on Wednesday, the US president was fiercely critical of German oil and gas imports from Russia.

Trump said it was “very inappropriate” for the US to be paying for European defence from Russia while Germany is supporting gas deals with Moscow.

“They pay billions of dollars to Russia and we have to defend them against Russia,” Trump told Stoltenberg at a breakfast meeting.

“Germany as far as I’m concerned is captive to Russia because it’s getting so much of its energy from Russia,” he said.

Bilateral Breakfast with NATO Secretary General in Brussels, Belgium… pic.twitter.com/l0EP3lzhCM — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2018

Stoltenberg conceded that there was disagreement between NATO allies over a natural gas pipeline deal between Germany and Russia.

Berlin has been supportive of building a second pipeline to transport Russian gas straight to Germany through the Baltic Sea, despite objections from other EU countries that the pipeline would increase the bloc’s dependence on Russian energy.

The US has previously warned it could impose sanctions if the project goes ahead.

Addressing reporters after his breakfast with Trump, Stoltenberg said it’s not up to NATO to make a decision on the future of the project.

“This is a national decision,” the secretary-general said. “It’s not for NATO to settle that issue.”

Commenting on the exchange with the US commander in chief, Stoltenberg said that Trump has a “very direct language” but that there was fundamental agreement on the need for “fairer burden sharing in the alliance”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended her country’s contribution to the alliance.

“Germany does a lot for NATO,” she said.

Merkel also denied Germany was under Russian control, saying Germany makes independent policies and decisions. The chancellor is due to meet President Trump later on Wednesday.

NATO spending spat

Dozens of NATO leaders are set to meet in Brussels on for what is likely to be a stormy summit.

Although the 29-member military alliance’s annual meetings have traditionally been fairly by-the-book affairs, expectations are different this year – thanks, in large, to Trump.

The US president has been openly critical of many of NATO’s practices, often railing against Washington spending more money on defence than other member states.

Addressing reporters ahead of the summit, Stoltenberg said he expected “open and frank discussions about defence spending” and recommitment of allies to increase spending.

“I think he’s had frank discussions and far more open than he would like at this stage,” Al Jazeera’s diplomatic correspondent James Bays said, noting the public nature of Trump’s remarks over breakfast.

Bays added it was a “difficult time” for the secretary-general with the most powerful NATO member “raising doubts about the alliance as has never been done before”.

Reporting from Moscow, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said he expected Moscow to have a mixed response to Trump’s comments.

“They will be relishing this wrecking ball activity,” Challands said.

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There would be “no love lost” for NATO, Challands said, which Moscow sees as an “imperial US project” to “persuade [Europe] that Russia is the enemy”.

On the flipside, Challands added, Russia would likely be “concerned that what Trump is doing is reinforcing the perception of Russia as the enemy of Europe”.