president of the UNITED states rages, often over Europe’s low spending. The nato chief has new numbers that should calm him down.
Nato secretary-general could on Friday to present a fresh statement of how much the allies – the UNITED states excluding – have promised to increase their spending on defense.
the Figures come four days before that the member states ‘ heads of state and government will meet in London to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the alliance. It happens in London.
Here is expected the countries once again to discuss burden-sharing in Nato, where the UNITED states alone accounts for 70 percent of the total cost of the defence.
the Secretary-general’s main point is that it is a clear trend that the allies spend more on defense. There has been growth in five years in a row.
by the end of next year the european allies, and Canada invested over 100 billion u.s. dollars further since 2016. The figure now stands at 130 billion dollars, says Jens Stoltenberg at a press conference Friday.
It has been the UNITED states’claim for years that the european allies should spend more money on defense.
In 2014, former us president Barack Obama the allied forces with a declaration of intent that all Nato countries should work towards a level of two percent of gdp on defense.
Nine countries, when in 2019 the level. Thus, there are now a country with among the countries that meet the requirement, as the president of the UNITED states, Donald Trump, has stressed often and heatedly.
– European allies and Canada should Retrobet not invest in defense in order to make Trump happy. They should invest in defence, because we are faced with new challenges, and because our security environment is becoming more dangerous, says Stoltenberg.
Five years in a row, the Nato countries – excluding the UNITED states – increased their spending. This year is the increase of 4.6 percent.
Looking at Denmark, the trend is also increasing. But Denmark has not increased the spending every year since 2014. From 2014 to 2015, gdp-the share of 1,15 percent to 1.11.
Since, however, been more marked forward. This year Denmark spends to 1.32 percent of gdp on defense.
With the latest defense agreement, Denmark will in 2023 reach 1.5 percent, but at the same time be among an expected minority of allies, who do not meet the common goal.
Stoltenberg said at the press conference in the Nato headquarters in Brussels that “most” of the allies in 2024 will meet the target of two percent. 2024 is the tenth anniversary of the agreement in Wales, where member states reached the agreement about two percent of gdp.
/ritzau/
