President Donald Trump has long-said that European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have not paid their fair share to fund defense for the alliance, claiming the U.S. is being dragged down by disproportionate spending. At the NATO conference in Bussels, Trump singled out German Chancellor Angela Merkel on this, charging that she and the rest of the allies need to “step it up” when it comes to defense spending.
According to a report from Yahoo, NATO allies agreed during a conference in Wales in 2014 to spending at least two percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense by 2024. However, Germany, which has the largest economy in Europe, spends only 1.24 percent of their country’s economic output, whereas the U.S. dolls out 3.57 percent.
To better provide for NATO’s resilience in fighting terrorism and peacekeeping operations Trump said, “These countries have to step it up – not over a 10 year period, they have to step it up immediately.”
“We’re protecting Germany, France and everybody…this has been going on for decades,” Trump charged. “We can’t put up with it and it’s inappropriate.”
On Wednesday, President Trump told NATO leaders they should increase their defense spending to four percent of GDP, double the organization’s current goal of two percent.
Reportedly, most NATO leaders disregarded the demand, followed by a firm affirmation of the previous goal by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. “We should first get to 2 percent,” he said, before reaching for a further goal. Eight of the 29 allies are currently meeting the two percent threshold.
One day before the high-profile meeting, the President tweeted, “Many countries in NATO, which we are expected to defend, are not only short of their current commitment of 2% (which is low), but are also delinquent for many years in payments that have not been made. Will they reimburse the U.S.?”
Although Trump’s commentary was not a formal proposal to increase defense spending, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee-Sanders explained, “Trump wants to see our allies share more of the burden and at a very minimum meet their already stated obligations.”
