German Defence minister fires back at Donald Trump's tweet it owes 'vast sums' to Nato

GERMAN Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen has rejected Donald Trump's claim that Germany owes "vast sums" of money to Nato and the US.

By BELINDA ROBINSON

PUBLISHED: 08:46, Mon, Mar 20, 2017 | UPDATED: 10:51, Mon, Mar 20, 2017

German Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen has rejected Donald Trump's claim on their debt
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Ms Von der Lyn said in a statement: “There is no debt account at Nato."

She added that it was wrong to link the alliance’s target for members to spend two per cent of their economic output on defence by 2024 to Nato.

"Defence spending also goes into UN peacekeeping missions into our European missions and into our contribution to the fight against ISIS terrorism.”

Donald Trump met German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House

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The German Finance minister was forced to respond to the US president after he tweeted on Saturday that Germany owes "vast sums" of money.

Mr Trump took to Twitter, a day after he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House and tweeted: "Germany owes vast sums of money to Nato & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defence it provides to Germany!”

But the Defence minister rubbished his claims and fired back at him while the president spent the weekend lounging at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.