Dubai, UAE, April 07, 2019:  Following on from his address at Congress in the United States of America, CNN’s Hala Gorani spoke to the Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg. 

 

During the interview on Hala Gorani Tonight the Secretary General of NATO confirmed that he had spoken to President Donald Trump recently and agreed with his suggestion that allies needed to pay more towards NATO. 

 

Despite criticism NATO had received from President Trump, Stoltenberg tells CNN that the US is committed to the organisation and sends a message to the President saying “the United States needs friends.”

 

Stoltenberg also spoke about the rise of terrorist actions linked to white supremacy suggesting all terrorists regardless of their religion and political ideology are “the same… cowards.”

 

 

“NATO is an alliance of 29 different nations with different geographies, history and political parties in power. But despite the differences we see for instance of trade, energy, other issues, we’ve always been able to unite around our main cause and that is to protect and defend each other.”

 

“My message to President Trump is also the United States needs friends, it is good for the United States to have friends – it is in the national interest of the United States to have a strong NATO. Trump’s message has been that he is committed to NATO, but he wants allies to pay more and I agree. We need fair burden sharing for NATO to be strong,”

 

“We [Stoltenberg and President Trump] have discussed how NATO is working and the important thing for me is that he is committed to NATO. He has clearly stated that he is behind NATO – he did that when we met yesterday, in his State of the Union speech and when he met leaders at the NATO summit in Brussels last July. But not only in words, the United States is increasing their military spending in Europe, we see US commitment to NATO both in words and in deeds.”

 

“Terrorism comes in different forms. They misuse religion, political ideology but they are all the same. They believe in violence, they believe in hatred therefore regardless of what type of religion or political ideology they try to use they are the same. They are cowards, they believe in hatred and violence and we have to stand up against them… we have to pay attention to both. ISIS tried to establish a caliphate and we needed military capabilities to liberate the territories they controlled