European NATO allies defence spending up

Bid to reassure Trump

BRUSSELS, March 13, (Agencies): Defence spending by European NATO states inched up in 2016 compared to the previous year, data by the military alliance showed on Monday, but still remained below the threshold the new US President Donald Trump said was crucial to achieve.

Trump made NATO states in Europe nervous when he criticised the alliance as “obsolete” during election campaign and then went on to suggest he could make US commitment to their security conditional on them meeting the alliance’s target of defence spending at two percent of their economic output.

Trump has since reaffirmed support for the security alliance but insisted Europeans must “pay their fair share.” His aides have said Trump wants to see progress on that by the end of this year and that Washington could otherwise “moderate” its support.

NATO said the US defence spending last year stood at 3.61 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, compared to 3.58 percent in 2015. That compares to 1.47 percent for NATO’s European allies last year and 1.44 percent the year

Trump

before.

NATO’s overall figure for 2016 stood at 2.43 percent versus 2.40 percent in 2015.

Europe’s low expenditure has long been a sore point for the United States, which provides the lion’s share of the alliance funds. In 2016, the US economy represented just below a half of the alliance’s combined economic output, but nearly 70 percent of its defence expenditure, NATO’s annual report showed.

Europe has sought to reverse falling defence budgets since its neighbour Russia annexed the peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

The growing worry over the spread of Islamic militancy and more failing states on their borders gave NATO members last year the first annual growth in defence spending relative to the size of their economies since 2009. NATO officials said Europe was last at two percent in 2000.

Power

The decision by Britain, a leading military power in the continent, to leave the European Union has also galvanised the Europeans to do more on defence on their own. Of 28 EU states, 22 are also members of NATO.

Only four European NATO members - Estonia, Greece, Poland and Britain - met the two-percent standard last year. Estonia’s Baltic peers Latvia and Lithuania, while below the threshold, billed the highest relative annual increase in 2016.

France came in at 1.79 percent, a tad below 2015, while Germany stood a 1.2 percent, just up from 1.18 in 2015.

In related news, NATO’s secretary-general on Monday urged European allies to spend more on their military budgets as he seeks to reassure President Donald Trump that members will pay their fair share.

“We still do not have fair burden sharing within our alliance,” Jens Stoltenberg told reporters as he released his annual report on the world’s biggest military alliance.

“All allies should reach this goal. All allies have agreed to do it at the highest level,” he said, recalling a commitment by presidents and prime ministers in 2014 to do so.

Trump suggested during election campaigning that he might not defend allies who fail to meet the target, rattling the 28-nation military alliance, particularly countries bordering Russia.

Stoltenberg’s report, part of his drive to mollify Trump, shows that European allies and Canada spent a total of roughly $10 billion more on defense last year in real terms than in 2015.

Faced with a more belligerent Russia that has sent troops into Georgia and Ukraine in recent years, NATO allies have halted the slide in spending but many are still well below the target.

Correct spending levels don’t guarantee that adequate forces can be efficiently deployed into battle and sustained by efficient supply lines.

If Germany met the figure, for example, it would be spending on defense more than Russia does, and it is unlikely that its armed forces could efficiently absorb the extra money anyway.

Meanwhile, the Swedish government and part of the political opposition agreed on Monday to boost defence spending by 500 million crowns ($55.7 million) this year to bolster military capabilities in the face of growing security concerns in the region.

A resurgent Russia and tensions over the conflict in Ukraine prompted politicians to call for an improvement of military capabilities that had been let to slide since the end of the Cold War.

While the funds allotted were minor, the parties also flagged that further additional spending would be considered in the budget process for the coming years.

Situation

“We have seen a deterioration of the security situation over time, so it is important to respond to that with different measures and this is a part of that strategy,” Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist told reporters.

The Nordic country’s top military chief, General Micael Byden, said earlier this year that the armed forces lacked at least 6.5 billion crowns to fully fund planned operations in the coming three years.

“We will now analyse and continue the discussions and get back to how we handle this,” said Hultqvist referring to the budget for 2018 which is due later this year.

Sweden, which is not a NATO member, cut military expenditure continuously in the years following the Cold War. In 2015, spending stood at 1.1 percent of GDP versus 2.6 percent in 1990, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

The government and parts of the opposition agreed in 2015 to increase the defence budget by 10.2 billion crowns for the years 2016-2020. The funds announced on Monday would be in addition to this spending.

Sweden said earlier this month it would reintroduce military conscription in 2018 as the voluntary draft failed to fill the ranks at a time of increased security concerns.