‘More NATO members to hit spending goal’
North Atlantic Treaty Organization Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that 18 of the alliance’s 31 countries were set to meet its defense spending target this year, after Donald Trump threatened to encourage Russia to attack members that were not coughing up enough funds.
The Republican White House frontrunner was widely rebuked after saying he would not defend NATO members who had not met their financial obligations, in his most extreme broadside yet against the military alliance.
Trump’s comments in a stump speech last Saturday drew condemnation from several leaders, including US President Joe Biden — his likely opponent in November’s election — and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Stoltenberg laid out new defense spending estimates, showing the number of states reaching 2 percent of their gross domestic product was expected to jump from 11 in 2023.
“That is another record number and a sixfold increase from 2014, when only three allies met the target,” Stoltenberg told journalists ahead of a defense ministers’ meeting.
The NATO chief did not provide a breakdown of which allies are hitting the target.
Overall, though, he said European allies and Canada would have added more than $600 billion to their defense spending since they set the 2-percent goal a decade ago.
Spurred on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, last year saw an “unprecedented rise” of 11 percent of spending by European members and Canada, Stoltenberg said.
He reiterated a warning to Trump not to “undermine” NATO’s collective security guarantee that all allies will help defend any member attacked.
“We should leave no room for miscalculation or misunderstanding in Moscow about our readiness and our commitment, our resolve to protect allies,” he said.
During his time as US president, Trump railed against Washington’s NATO allies to pressure them to spend more on defense — and he has claimed credit for increased spending.
But the US still accounts for the vast bulk of combined defense spending by NATO members.
Moscow’s full-scale war on Ukraine has served as a wake-up call for European countries and saw NATO turn the 2-percent figure into a minimum requirement.
Key players such as Germany have ramped up their spending and are set to meet the target this year.
“I think we would do very well not to keep looking like rabbits at a snake at the possible Republican presidential candidate,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “Instead, we should do our homework.”
Trump’s broadside against US allies has raised the nightmarish specter for European officials of Washington sinking the 75-yearold alliance if he is reelected.
It comes as warnings swirl that Russian President Vladimir Putin could look to target alliance members if Ukraine loses the war.
“NATO has the capabilities. We have the resolve to protect and defend all allies,” Stoltenberg said. “We don’t see any imminent threat against any NATO ally.”