On Thursday, President Trump was asked about NATO.
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00:00What can Norway do to prove that they're an important ally to the U.S.?
00:05What can Norway do to prove that?
00:06Just keep doing what they're doing.
00:07We have a very good relationship with Norway.
00:10Great leader, great people.
00:12I know many of the people in Norway.
00:15And it's truly an incredible country.
00:18So all they have to do is keep doing what they're doing,
00:21I think is probably the best answer I can give.
00:23As you pointed out, the former Secretary General of NATO is here,
00:29Mr. Stoltenberg.
00:30How important is the NATO Defense Alliance, Mr. President?
00:34Is it sacrosanct from your perspective?
00:37Well, it's a very interesting question.
00:39It's certainly very important for Europe.
00:41And I think without us, it wouldn't be nearly as powerful.
00:45And as the former Secretary General, who did a great job,
00:50can tell you, we played, I played, when I was there,
00:54a very big role in making sure that NATO is funded
00:58by the 28 — at that time, they had 28 countries, including us,
01:02because many of the countries weren't paid.
01:04And they ended up being paid, you would say.
01:08And the Secretary General was very nice about it,
01:13as far as I was concerned.
01:15Other presidents went in, they made a speech, and they left.
01:18And that kept going on.
01:19And, you know, in the meantime, they had no money.
01:22And the United States was paying far more than its fair share.
01:25You could say that they were paying — I actually said sometimes
01:28it looked like 100 percent, and it was unfair.
01:32And the two of us worked very well together,
01:36and we took care of the situation.
01:38Thank you so much.