Bloomberg: Trump considering pushing Russia and Ukraine to resume negotiations if he wins election
Former American president Donald Trump and his advisors are contemplating a push to get Ukraine and Russia to return to the negotiating table if he wins the November election, says Bloomberg.
Their sources say that the Trump team are considering pushing Ukraine to the table by threatening to cut off American aid. On the other side, they would attempt to get Russia to the table with the threat of more military aid to Ukraine.
The report also claims that advisors including Robert O’Brien and Larry Kudlow are pushing for stricter sanctions on the Russian Central Bank.
However, Bloomberg says that the Trump campaign has thus far held off on reaching out to Russian or Ukrainian partners, as that could violate the Logan Act, a law that makes it illegal for any private citizen to attempt to conduct foreign policy on behalf of the United States.
Additionally, Trump and his team are allegedly discussing the possibility of a two-tiered NATO, an arrangement in which Article 5, the commitment that an attack on one member of the alliance is an attack on all members, would only apply to countries that meet their 2% of GDP defense-spending target.
When asked about Bloomberg’s report, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said:
Article 5 — the commitment that an attack on one ally will be regarded as an attack on all — is the core of NATO.
Any suggestion that we’re not there to protect and defend all allies will undermine the security of all of us and put at risk our soldiers, our personnel.
We should not pursue any path that indicates that we are trying to divide Europe from North America — the strength is that we have Europe and North America together in NATO.