NATO said about this on Wednesday Europe increased defense spending and the United States needed allies days later than before President Donald Trump has suggested that Washington cannot protect countries that he did not spend enough.
“I expect the 18 allies to spend 2% of GDP on defense this year,” Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference in Brussels, adding that total military spending was set for another record year after Russia’s two-year full-scale war against Ukraine. .
That number was higher than last year, when 11 of NATO’s 31 members were expected to meet the agreed target.
Trump shocked Europeans on Saturday by saying he would encourage Russia to “do what they want” to its underspending NATO allies.
Before the meeting of NATO ministers, Stoltenberg said that the United States knows how important the defense alliance is for its security.
“The United States has never fought a war alone,” he said.
“The criticism we’re hearing is not about NATO, it’s about NATO allies not spending enough on NATO,” he said, adding that the European allies’ recent increases in military spending are proof that the message is being heard.
Stoltenberg added that European countries of NATO will invest a total of 380 billion dollars in defense this year.
In a historic first since the end of the Cold War, Berlin will meet the 2% target for the first time this year.
In the current year, the German government allocates 76.8 billion dollars equivalent of regular and special budget expenses for defense expenses. However, the amount of its total defense spending is classified.
In 2023, eleven allies are expected to meet NATO’s previous estimate of the 2% target – Poland, the US, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Latvia, the UK and Slovakia.