Wary allies await Trump at NATO summit in Brussels

"It is not unusual for the first summit for a new US President to be a 'get to know you' summit - but there is a bit more at stake," said Sophia Besch, a NATO expert at the Centre for European Reform. European allies had to take Trump's "obsolete" comments "very seriously," Besch said, because Europe depends on America's defense capabilities and contribution to NATO - US currently provides 73% of the organization's budget and spends 3.6% of its own GDP on defense. Other NATO members have a target of 2% of GDP on defense spending, but only a minority have met this target. She added: "Trump has never formally committed to Article 5 because he doesn't accept that Russia may be a threat to Europe."

..."We can expect NATO leaders to discuss Manchester as an example of the threat of terrorism in Europe," Besch added. "What they can do, what they are doing but should perhaps invest more resources and personnel in, is engagement in unstable countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, or perhaps even Libya, through training of armed forces and police."They should also get much better at intelligence and information sharing, not just between NATO allies, but also between NATO and the EU."