“NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expects US President-elect Donald Trump to put pressure on European members of the Alliance to increase defense spending. Source: “European Truth” with reference to Spiegel Details: Rutte recalled that even during his first term, Trump repeatedly stated that European NATO allies were not investing enough in defense.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte expects US President-elect Donald Trump to put pressure on European allies to increase defense spending.
Source: “European truth” with reference to Spiegel
Details: Rutte recalled that even during his first term, Trump repeatedly stated that NATO’s European allies were not investing enough in defense.
“He will want us to do more,” the NATO Secretary General said.
Rütte noted that, in general, European allies now invest more than 2% of their gross domestic product in defense. But in 4-5 years they will have problems containing Russia if they don’t spend more.
The Secretary General did not say whether he believed it was appropriate to increase NATO’s defense spending target to 3% of GDP or even more. It is expected that decisions on this issue will be made before the NATO summit in June next year.
Prehistory:
- During the election campaign, Trump stated that he believed that NATO’s target should be increased to 3% of GDP. There have been reports recently that Trump may demand as much as 5%.
- From the Republican point of view, European partners do too little for defense and rely too much on US defense. During his first term as president, Trump even threatened to withdraw from NATO because of it.
- Germany has recently significantly increased its defense spending, but it will still only reach 2.1% of GDP this year. The US, on the other hand, consistently spends over 3% of GDP.
- Rutte said earlier this month that alliance members should spend “much more” than 2 percent of GDP on defense.