US President Donald Trump has said he thinks it is “presently unnecessary” to consider quitting Nato.
The comment came after a two-day summit in Brussels, at which he said allies had committed to spending more than 2% of their annual output (GDP) on defence budgets.
He has previously been highly critical of the alliance, complaining the US pays more than others.
However, no other country has confirmed any increased commitments as yet.
There were unconfirmed reports this morning which suggested Mr Trump had threatened to go it alone if other nations did not meet the alliance's target of 2% of their GDP by 2024, BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale says.
But by the time Mr Trump held a press conference, he was hailing the summit as a success.
“We made a tremendous amount of progress today,” he said. “It has been really amazing to see the level of spirit in that room.”
He added the US commitment to Nato – which was established in 1949 with members agreeing that an attack against one would be considered an attack against them all – “remains very strong”.
But there are conflicting reports over what exactly was agreed. Mr Trump said the allies “have substantially upped their commitment”, with Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg giving him “total credit” for the…
