Hello Alexander,I have been trying to find out how the contributions to NATO are calculated. Have not been successful thus far but I should imagine they must be based on GDP of each country? I just looked US's GDP and, in 2003, it was USD27.36 trillion. I looked UK's GDP (have not yet looked for other countries) and in 2023 it was USD3.34 trillion. I would have thought, but will confirm, that European countries' GDP are closer to the UK than the USA. Still, the US contribution amounts to 3.4% of its GDP. Why was NATO created? By 1949, Stalin had managed to install communist governments in most Eastern European countries to act as a ‘buffer zone’ to protect the USSR from attack. There was a fear that the USSR could do the same to countries in Western Europe. As part of NATO, smaller countries would be less vulnerable to Soviet influence or attack.The Berlin Blockade of 1948 convinced the West that they needed a defensive organisation, in the event of a Soviet attack on a capitalist country.China had become communist in 1949 followed by North Korea in 1950. This significantly increased the proportion of the world which was ‘red’. The USA was concerned that communism would now spread to other countries.The formation of NATO meant that the USA could place weapons in member states. This would allow more effective defence in the event of a Soviet attack.So, if Trump sees Putin as a friend, I suppose that there is no need, in Trump's eyes, to maintain this alliance. I think Trump sees China as a greater threat and will concentrate on the Pacific and forget Europe.
Ivonne Holliday ● 84d