NATO chief urged allies on Tuesday to step up their defence spending, a day ahead of the first meeting between new U.S. Defence Secretary Jim Mattis and his 27 NATO counterparts in Brussels. U.S. President Donald Trump suggested during his campaign that he might not defend allies who refuse to contribute their fair share. His comments have alarmed European nations, particularly those near Russia’s border, like Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.
“Fair burden-sharing and increased defence spending underpins the trans-Atlantic alliance,” NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters. “If we reduce defence spending in times when tensions are going down, we have to be able to increase defence spending when tensions are going up, as they are now.”
While the Trump administration is weighing its defence commitments to Europe, NATO leaders have already committed to halting spending cuts and raising their military budgets to 2% of gross domestic product.
But apart from the U.S., only four other NATO member countries do so — Britain, Estonia, Poland and Greece, according to NATO figures. In 2014, NATO leaders committed to move within a decade to spend 2 % of GDP. “We don’t expect all allies to meet the 2% immediately, but we expect allies to stop the cuts,” Mr. Stoltenberg said on Tuesday. Indeed 24 of the 28 allies already have. — AP
