Defense budgets to dominate agenda

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — Despite pleas to set aside bickering over military spending, the United States is almost certain to demand again this week that its 28 NATO partners respect their pledges to boost defense budgets.

Importantly, this is about national military budgets, not NATO funding. No one owes the United States money, even though Washington spends more on defense than all the other allies combined.

What it means

NATO countries slashed spending as tensions eased after the Cold War. But Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula was a wake-up call. The allies agreed then to halt cuts, boost budgets and move toward spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense by 2024.

European allies and Canada rely heavily on U.S. equipment like large military transport planes and air-toair refueling, and NATO’s deterrent effect is more credible backed by the United States.

Nine countries are projected to meet the 2% benchmark this year — the U.S. with about 3.4%, Greece, Britain, Bulgaria, Estonia, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania — up from three nations in 2014. Germany will spend 1.35%, ranking it 17th, but it aims to hit 1.5% by the deadline. Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg spend less than 1%.

According to new numbers released last week, European allies and Canada will add $130 billion to their defense budgets by the end of 2020. Germany will account for around 20% of that increase. A total of some $400 billion more is expected to be added by 2024.

Germany, the main object of President Trump’s ire, says its current spending meets NATO planning requirements, and plans to spend 2% by around 2031.