Haley: Trump believes in NATO’s Article 5

United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in an interview broadcast Sunday said the U.S. still supports Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) founding treaty, which stipulates that a threat to one member nation is a threat to all nations.

“Of course we believe in Article 5,” Haley told CNN’s “State of the Union” when asked why Trump did not explicitly express his support for Article 5 when he visited the NATO headquarters in Brussels last month.

“I just met with all of my NATO ambassadors yesterday. We said, ‘A threat on one of us is a threat on all of us.’” 

{mosads}Haley added that while Russia may try to divide member nations, the alliance will stay strong.

“NATO is going to continue to be strong. It’s going to continue to be united. Russia’s going to try and divide it, but the truth is we’ve never swayed from Article 5,” she said.

When pressed by host Jake Tapper about Trump not mentioning Article 5 during his trip to Brussels, Haley said she believes the president supports the treaty’s stipulation.

“He could if you asked him. I mean, I think if you asked him if he was in favor of Article 5, he would say that yes, he is,” she said.

Echoing Trump’s own rhetoric that countries in NATO need to pay their fair share for defense spending, Haley said the president’s goal was to ensure that members shared the burden of support for the alliance.

“His intent was to make sure that the burden sharing was happening,” Haley added.