NATO leaders are now in Brussels for a summit on Wednesday and Thursday. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the press on Tuesday that they will discuss ways to strengthen the alliance's deterrence, defense, and counter terrorism capabilities, and achieve fairer burden-sharing. Two weeks earlier, US President Donald Trump blasted NATO members for failing to spend their fair share. Omar Khan has more.

Pay your fair share or else!

This was a call from US President Donald Trump during a rally in South Carolina two weeks ago.

Trump lashed out at Washington's NATO allies for not contributing enough, and claimed the US is paying too much.

He stated that Germany is an important NATO member that should be paying more.

DONALD TRUMP US PRESIDENT "It's all going to work out because we're the piggy bank that they like to take from. Whether it's military protection. You look at NATO. NATO. We're spending 90 percent of NATO. Now it's all wonderful and we like to help out. But it helps them. They're in Europe. It helps them a lot more than it helps us. We're very far away."

DONALD TRUMP US PRESIDENT "Germany is paying 1 percent of a much smaller GDP. We're paying close to 4 percent of a much larger GDP. Now that doesn't work folks."

Back in May 2017, the first NATO summit that Trump attended, he asked members to contribute a more fair share to meet their financial obligations.

After that awkward moment, he was also seen muscling himself to the front of the group of leaders, as they prepared for a photo.

Trump firmly pushed aside Montenegro's Prime Minister Dusko Markovic, nestling his way closer to NATO head Jens Stoltenberg.

Ahead of Trump's second NATO summit, Defense ministers from nine EU members met in Luxembourg on June 25th.

They signed a joint military intervention policy which is established outside both the EU and NATO frameworks.

It will allow cosignatories to react to situations near Europe's borders without the need to secure support from the United States.

Omar Khan, CGTN.