President Donald Trump on Friday affirmed the United States' support for Article Five of the NATO agreement, which commits treaty members to mutual defense in the case of an attack on one.
"Do you think the U.S. should act under Article Five if any of these countries will be under military aggression?" a reporter asked Trump at a joint press conference with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis.
Romania is a member of NATO.
"I'm committing the United States to Article Five, and certainly we are there to protect," Trump said. "And that is one of the reasons I want people to make sure we have a very, very strong force by paying the kind of money necessary to have that force."
Trump did not explicitly support Article Five when he attended the NATO summit in May, which created controversy. Business Insider reported that Trump’s own national security team was "blindsided" by the move, and speculation continued to swirl that Trump was not committed to the treaty's mutual defense provision, which says that an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all members.
Trump appeared to put that speculation to rest in his remarks on Friday.
He concluded his answer saying, "Yes, absolutely I'd be committed to Article Five."