European nations should pay more for NATO help

HOPEFULLY you’re not getting too tied up in knots over President Donald Trump’s recent comments. He has asserted that European nations should be paying more to NATO, the international alliance bound by treaty to collectively defend one another militarily.

“We want a strong Europe, it’s very important to us, and whichever way we can do it the best and more efficient would be something we both want,” Trump said when he was in France. “We want to help Europe but it has to be fair. Right now the burden sharing has been largely on the United States.”

What’s wrong with the president’s statements? Nothing. Because he’s right. The financial burden of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been largely on the United States.

Here’s the breakdown: There are 29 NATO members. Together they spent $917 billion on defense in 2017. America’s portion of that was about $618 billion — two-thirds of the total amount.

NATO put that into perspective in its June 27 update on spending: “This does not mean that the United States covers 67 percent of the costs involved in the operational running of NATO as an organization, including its headquarters in Brussels and its subordinate military commands, but it does mean that there is an overreliance by the Alliance as a whole on the United States for the provision of essential capabilities, including for instance, in regard to intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; air-to-air refueling; ballistic missile defense; and airborne electronic warfare.”

The numbers make it blindingly obvious: The spending is disproportionate, and by most any measure the other 28 members need to pay more.

So how’s that coming along? In 2014, NATO members re-committed to a 2006 agreement to voluntarily contribute 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense. Last year, the only nations that did were America, Britain, Greece, Poland and Estonia. Poland actually came in at 1.99 percent, but close enough.

Who else agrees that Europe needs to pay more? How about Britain’s former defense minister?

Here’s what Michael Fallon said in July: “Half the alliance — 16 of the 29 countries — don’t even spend 1.5 percent (of gross domestic product) let alone 2 percent that we all agreed on four years ago in Wales (at a NATO summit).” Fallon was the U.K.’s secretary of state for defense from 2014 to 2017.

“Four years on, and not enough European countries are making progress towards it and they need to do that and the president’s criticisms are quite valid,” Fallon said.

And what did French President Emmanuel Macron think of Trump’s comments we quoted near the beginning of this editorial? Here’s what CNBC reported (our emphasis added):

“Macron echoed those sentiments, saying he wanted Europe to bear a greater share of the defense costs within NATO, a point he has made repeatedly since taking office ...”

So when Trump states plainly that Europe should be paying for the defense of Europe, Trump’s critics shouldn’t recoil in horror merely because he said it. He’s speaking for a lot of other people.