Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence Michael (Mike) Richard PenceVenezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump 'And the award for best political commentary by an Oscar nominee goes to...' UN nuclear watchdog: Iran maintains compliance with 2015 pact MORE said Thursday the U.S. would "absolutely" defend its NATO allies, contradicting remarks by Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE that he would only do so if they fulfilled their obligations to the U.S.

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“We’ll uphold our treaty obligations, including the mutual defense agreement that is NATO,” Pence told PBS NewsHour, referring to the alliance's obligation to defend a member nation if under attack.

Trump said in a New York Times interview a day earlier that if one of the Baltic nations in NATO was attacked by Russia, he would consider whether they had fulfilled their "obligations" to the U.S. before upholding the pact and coming to its aid.

"Have they fulfilled their obligations to us? If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes," Trump said, according to a transcript of the interview.

The comments caused an uproar among some Republican lawmakers, NATO officials and members of the foreign policy intelligentsia in Washington.

Despite those comments, Pence said Trump “would absolutely stand by our allies and treaty obligations.”

Pence's defense came just hours before Trump is scheduled to formally accept the Republican Party's presidential nomination during an address centered on national security.

Trump chose the Indiana governor as his running mate last week, despite some differences between the two men on foreign policy. His selection is believed to be a nod to the Republican foreign policy establishment, which has been skeptical of Trump.