U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who once blasted NATO as "obsolete," said he would revive the military alliance by using it to fight the Islamic State extremist group.
“I like the idea of using NATO and also neighbors that aren’t in NATO and take them out. You gotta take them out,” Trump told ABC News in an interview on June 30.
Trump has previously said NATO should be "readjusted to take care of terrorism," which he views as the principle security threat to the United States.
“I was the one that said NATO is obsolete because they don’t cover terrorism properly," he said.
Trump told ABC he has a plan to destroy IS, though he declined to give details.
“We’re going to hit them very hard, it’s very true. It’s very possible that we should use NATO,” he said.
Trump said he sees an advantage in using NATO forces.
“I don’t want to get too much of ours involved. I want NATO to be involved,” he said. “We spend a tremendous amount of money on NATO. We take care of countries that frankly should be taking care of themselves.”