The United States is committed to the collective defense of NATO members, Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday in a bid to reassure European allies worried by comments by Donald Trump.
Republican presidential hopeful Trump spooked fears in Eastern Europe earlier this year when he questioned Washington’s adherence to NATO’s key Article 5, which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
“In the United States, we will never forget that Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty was triggered for the first time after 9/11,” Kerry said in a speech at a think-tank in Brussels, Belgium.
“And I can assure you, that whatever you may have read in recent times, the United States will never fail to meet its own Article 5 obligations should any NATO member come under attack.”
Kerry insisted however that Russia had nothing to fear from NATO, despite rising tensions between Moscow and the West over the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the Syria war.
“NATO is a defensive alliance. The Russian people, in particular, should know that despite what their leaders sometimes tell them, our alliance does not seek to weaken, contain, or divide their nation,” Kerry said.

Source: Arab News