Trump suggests acronym 'NATOME' for NATO deployments in the Middle East

US President Donald Trump on December 9 unveiled an acronym "NATOME" to describe the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) deployments in the Middle East. Trump called the "NATOME" acronym beautiful. According to reports, Trump came with the "beautiful" name by stating that the word NATO was already there and added a short form for the Middle East i.e. ME, coming up with "NATOME". According to reports, Trump unveiled the acronym while on call with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on December 8. The call was in relation to Trump asking other NATO member countries to look more into security in the Middle East.

Trump further talked about the newly formulated US-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement also known as USMCA, which replaces the former acronym NAFTA. Trump referenced the USMCA to the hit song YMCA by Village People. He said that people forgot about USMCA but thinking of the song made them remember. According to reports, NATO, a group that has largely been dependent on America, might come in place of the US in Iraq or Middle Eat conflict zones.

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Trump calls for an increase in NATO presence in the Middle East

Amid rising tensions between Iran and the United States, American President Donald Trump on January 8, sought for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) alliance to increase its presence and involvement in the Middle East. This comes off as an unexpected request as Trump earlier had questioned the relevance of the transatlantic alliance. While addressing his first public comments on Iran's military strikes targeting US troops, he said, “Today, I am going to ask NATO to become much more involved in the Middle East process." He further spoke with the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. Earlier last month, Trump had called on the NATO allies regarding the Islamic State group.

A North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) official reportedly said that there were no casualties among the troops on its training mission in Iraq when a total of 15 missiles hit the US-Iraqi airbase on January 8. Amid the heightened tensions between the two countries, NATO suspended training of Iraqi forces to ensure the safety of several hundred mission members. According to international media reports, the alliance also announced that it was moving some of its trainers out of Iraq because of heightened tensions following Qassem Soleimani's killing.

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(With inputs from agencies)