President Donald Trump has corrected his error about NATO, making it clear in recent days that he does not regard it as "obsolete," which was how he described it during the election campaign.

Instead he affirmed his commitment to that crucial alliance in Europe. He is also, as a corollary, right to call on European partners to pay their NATO contributions in full and on time.

The hyper-reactive criticism of President Trump's reflexive opponents has been to exaggerate the importance of the fact that the president did not explicitly refer in his NATO speech to Article 5 of the alliance, the one in which members agree to treat an attack on one of them as an attack on all of them.

But what else could he mean by his words that America would "never forsake the friends that stood by our side"? This made it plain that America's commitment to NATO isn't conditional.

Trump pressed for NATO to emphasize the fight against Islamist terrorism, citing the Islamic State and like-minded groups as the largest day-to-day threat to American and Europe security.

Sharing intelligence on terror threats and counterterrorist tactics should become a centerpiece of NATO's role. Looking for opportunities to weaken and impoverish the Islamic State group needs to be another mission of the alliance.

Terrorism is security issue No. 1, but it's not the only one, as Trump also made plain. He reiterated NATO's commitment to protecting Eastern Europe against Russian aggression.

The Soviet Union is gone, but that doesn't obviate the need for a trans-Atlantic military alliance to check Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin has designs on Russia's near abroad and has annexed Crimea and occupied southeastern Ukraine. He also rolled tanks into Georgia.

Estonians, with a history of being invaded by bigger nations, are so fearful that it'll be their turn soon that they are ramping up the disaster training of civilian militias.

We don't need to read between the lines to see Putin's intentions. In 2005, he declared, "The demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century."

Recent gestures, moving troops from the U.S. and NATO countries closer to Russia in the Baltics and to Poland, are the sort of show of strength that Moscow will notice.

Putin pines for the days of the Evil Empire. A unified West is the best deterrent, and the structure of Western military unity is NATO. It should be strengthened and perhaps can be if its members stop skimping on their dues.

REPRINTED FROM THE COLORADO SPRINGS GAZETTE