Worries Over US Commitment to NATO Renewed after Trump Speech

Former US president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump attends a rally in Conway, South Carolina - AFP
Former US president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump attends a rally in Conway, South Carolina - AFP
TT

Worries Over US Commitment to NATO Renewed after Trump Speech

Former US president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump attends a rally in Conway, South Carolina - AFP
Former US president and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump attends a rally in Conway, South Carolina - AFP

Donald Trump prompted stark warnings on Sunday that his remarks against NATO threatened the military alliance, after a campaign speech renewed doubts over the US commitment to the mutual defense treaty if the former president wins in November.

Speaking at a campaign rally in South Carolina on Saturday, Trump described what he said was a conversation with a fellow head of state at an unspecified NATO meeting.

"One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, 'Well, sir, if we don't pay, and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us?' I said, 'You didn't pay, you're delinquent?'"

"No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want."

Trump has regularly criticized allies of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for not meeting a goal of spending at least two percent of GDP on defense.

"You got to pay. You got to pay your bills," Trump, who is almost certain to be the Republican nominee for the November presidential election, said Saturday.

Trump's remark comes after Senate Republicans on Wednesday rejected a bipartisan bill that would have included sorely needed funding for Ukraine, plus aid for ally Israel, along with reforms to address the US-Mexico border crisis, AFP reported.

The US Senate is now considering a foreign aid package that decouples the aid from the border issue entirely. It could see a key procedural vote on Sunday.

The $95 billion package includes funding for Israel and Taiwan, but the majority would go toward helping Ukraine rearm as it enters a third year of war since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion.

The White House hit back at Trump's assertions, touting President Joe Biden's efforts to bolster alliances around the globe.

"Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement Saturday night.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Sunday that "any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US."

European Council President Charles Michel also denounced the comments as "reckless," saying they can "serve only Putin's interest."

Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who has endorsed Trump for his party's nomination, defended the ex-president on Sunday as "telling a story" about something that happened in the past.

"He doesn't talk like a traditional politician," the Florida senator told CNN's "State of the Union."

"By the way, Donald Trump was president and he didn't pull us out of NATO. In fact, American troops were stationed throughout NATO" during his term, Rubio said.

Stoltenberg, for his part, said he expects that "regardless of who wins the presidential election the US will remain a strong and committed NATO ally."

At the South Carolina rally, Trump also needled Nikki Haley, his former UN ambassador, who is challenging him for the Republican nomination but badly trailing in the race.

Haley, when asked Sunday about Trump's NATO remarks, alleged her former boss was taking Putin's side.

"What bothers me about this is, don't take the side of a thug who kills his opponents. Don't take the side of someone who has gone in and invaded a country and half a million people have died or been wounded," Haley told CBS News' "Face the Nation."

She also defended her husband Michael Haley, who is on a military deployment in Africa, after Trump mocked his absence from the campaign trail.

"This isn't personal about me and Michael. This is what it says to every member who sacrifices for us," said the former South Carolina governor.

"We can't have someone that sits and mocks our men and women trying to protect America. It's a pattern of chaos," she said.



Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
TT

Bangladesh Protest Leaders Taken from Hospital by Police

People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)
People take part in a song march to protest against the indiscriminate killings and mass arrest in Dhaka on July 26, 2024. (AFP)

Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP.

Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.

At least 195 people were killed in the ensuing police crackdown and clashes, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals, in some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's tenure.

All three were patients at a hospital in the capital Dhaka, and at least two of them said their injuries were caused by torture in earlier police custody.

"They took them from us," Gonoshasthaya hospital supervisor Anwara Begum Lucky told AFP. "The men were from the Detective Branch."

She added that she had not wanted to discharge the student leaders but police had pressured the hospital chief to do so.

Islam's elder sister Fatema Tasnim told AFP from the hospital that six plainclothes detectives had taken all three men.

The trio's student group had suspended fresh protests at the start of this week, saying they had wanted the reform of government job quotas but not "at the expense of so much blood".

The pause was due to expire earlier on Friday but the group had given no indication of its future course of action.

Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that he feared for his life.

He said that two days beforehand, a group of people identifying themselves as police detectives blindfolded and handcuffed him and took him to an unknown location.

Islam added that he had come to his senses the following morning on a roadside in Dhaka.

Mahmud earlier told AFP that he had also been detained by police and beaten at the height of last week's unrest.

Three senior police officers in Dhaka all denied that the trio had been taken from the hospital and into custody on Friday.

- Garment tycoon arrested -

Police told AFP on Thursday that they had arrested at least 4,000 people since the unrest began last week, including 2,500 in Dhaka.

On Friday police said they had arrested David Hasanat, the founder and chief executive of one of Bangladesh's biggest garment factory enterprises.

His Viyellatex Group employs more than 15,000 people according to its website, and its annual turnover was estimated at $400 million by the Daily Star newspaper last year.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police inspector Abu Sayed Miah said Hasanat and several others were suspected of financing the "anarchy, arson and vandalism" of last week.

Bangladesh makes around $50 billion in annual export earnings from the textile trade, which services leading global brands including H&M, Gap and others.

Student protests began this month after the reintroduction in June of a scheme reserving more than half of government jobs for certain candidates.

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the move deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

Critics say the quota is used to stack public jobs with loyalists to Hasina's Awami League.

- 'Call to the nation' -

The Supreme Court cut the number of reserved jobs on Sunday but fell short of protesters' demands to scrap the quotas entirely.

Hasina has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

Her government is also accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

Hasina continued a tour of government buildings that had been ransacked by protesters, on Friday visiting state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which was partly set ablaze last week.

"Find those who were involved in this," she said, according to state news agency BSS.

"Cooperate with us to ensure their punishment. I am making this call to the nation."