Future of the West at stake

US President Donald Trump pledged his backing for Nato at the start of a high-stakes visit to Europe yesterday as he warned that the future of the West was at risk.

In key US ally Poland on the first leg of the trip, he also accused Russia of "destabilising" action and warned North Korea it faced "consequences" after an intercontinental ballistic missile test that has alarmed the international community.

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On the eve of what is likely to be a prickly G20 summit, with Trump facing animosity from traditional US allies, he used his keynote address in Warsaw to warn that a lack of collective resolve could doom an alliance that endured through the Cold War.

"The defence of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail," he said.

"The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive."

Seeking to ease allies' concerns about the US commitment to Nato, Trump endorsed its one-for-all-and-all-for-one mutual defence pact.

"The United States has demonstrated not merely with words, but with it actions, that we stand firmly behind Article Five," he said, while calling for more defence spending on the eastern side of the Atlantic.

"The transatlantic bond between the United States and Europe is as strong as ever, and maybe in many ways, even stronger," he added.

Speaking in a country alarmed by Moscow's increasing military assertiveness, Trump -- just a day before he meets President Vladimir Putin at the G20 -- offered rare criticism of Russia's "destabilising" behaviour.

He also said Moscow "may have" tried to influence the 2016 election that brought him to power, but suggested others too may have been involved and blames his predecessor Barack Obama for failing to act.

Looming large over his entire European trip is Pyongyang's test of an ICBM that could deliver a nuclear payload to Alaska.