The President-elect says some nations don't pay their share financially and has slated its lack of a clear anti-terror strategy.
Image Caption:Donald Trump will be inaugurated as US president on FridayRussia says it agrees with Donald Trump's comment that the NATO military alliance is "obsolete".
Mr Trump, who said the alliance was "designed many,
many years ago", complained that several nations do not contribute their
share financially and criticised its lack of a clear anti-terror
strategy.
The US President-elect claimed NATO was "very important"
to him but pointed out only five countries were "paying what they’re
supposed to. Five. It’s not much".
However, the "obsolete" remark
is set to cause further anxiety among eastern European NATO countries
nervous about Moscow following Russia's annexation of Crimea and
involvement in the Ukraine crisis.
Meanwhile, the billionaire has
signalled sanctions against Russia could be eased if the US can strike a
deal with Moscow to reduce stocks of nuclear weapons.
Video:Trump open to removing Russia sanctions
His comments come despite him prompting fears of a new arms race late
last year when he said America needed to "greatly strengthen and
expand" its nuclear capability.
The President-elect told The Times
and Germany's Bild newspaper: "They have sanctions on Russia - let's
see if we can make some good deals with Russia.
"For one thing, I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that's part of it."
Moscow
has been hit with sanctions over its involvement in the Syrian war and
the Ukraine conflict as well as alleged hacking during the US
presidential campaign.
Mr Trump said Russia was "hurting very
badly right now because of sanctions", and added: "I think something can
happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit."
The Kremlin said it was too early to comment on his nuclear-sanctions proposal.
Last
week, the President-elect acknowledged that Russia carried out cyber
attacks in the White House race, but has denied claims the country has
compromising material on him.
Mr Trump did have some criticism for
Vladimir Putin, calling Moscow's intervention in Syria "a very bad
thing" which had created a "terrible humanitarian situation".
Mr
Trump also said he believed Europe's migration crisis had been the
deciding factor in the UK's referendum vote to leave the EU.
He said: "I do believe this, if they (EU countries) hadn't been
forced to take in all of the refugees, so many, with all the problems
that it... entails, I think that you wouldn't have a Brexit."
Mr Trump also said he believed German Chancellor Angela Merkel made an error when she opened Germany's doors to migrants.
"I think she made one very catastrophic mistake and that was taking all of these illegals," he said.
Mr
Trump was scathing about US foreign policy, describing the invasion of
Iraq as "possibly the worst decision ever made in the history of our
country".
He said Afghanistan was "going badly" and the offensive
to retake Mosul - Islamic State's last stronghold in Iraq - had been a
disaster.
He also said he would appoint his son-in-law Jared
Kushner to broker a Middle East peace deal and urged Britain to veto any
new UN Security Council resolution that slams Israel.
Mr Trump
repeated his criticism of President Barack Obama's handling of the Iran
nuclear agreement, calling it "one of the dumbest deals I've ever seen".
::
Watch live coverage of the inauguration on Sky News from 3pm and Sky
Atlantic from 4pm on 20 January. Adam Boulton is in the US presenting a
special Sky News programme - Trump: America's President - every day at
midnight from now until Friday.
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