NATO allies defensive amid criticism by U.S.

BRUSSELS» NATO allies are pushing back against U.S. criticism that they are not spending enough on defense as President Donald Trump ratchets up pressure ahead of a summit next week.

In the weeks leading up to NATO’s July 11-12 summit in Brussels, Trump sent letters to the governments of Norway, other European allies and Canada demanding that they boost their defense spending.

After Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, NATO allies agreed to stop cutting defense budgets, to start spending more as their economies grew and to move toward a goal of devoting 2 percent of GDP to defense within a decade.

In an email Tuesday to The Associated Press, Norwegian Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen said “Norway stands by its decision of the NATO Summit in 2014 and is following up on this.”

It has spent “far beyond” NATO’s target on new military equipment, he added.

In Germany, “we stand by the 2 percent goal we’ve set,” Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said Tuesday. “We’re on the path there. And we’re prepared ... to take substantial responsibility within the alliance,” she added.

In the letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, dated June 19, Trump wrote that despite her country’s important role in the alliance Norway “remains the only NATO ally sharing a border with Russia that lacks a credible plan to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense.”

In Canada, Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan’s chief of communications said the government has committed to increasing funding by more than 70 percent over the next decade.

The U.S. spends more on defense than all the others combined — 3.61 percent of GDP in 2016, or around $664 billion.