Politics
JUST IN: NATO Countries Agree To Boost Defense Spending After Pressure From Trump
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that European countries in the alliance have agreed to increase defense spending after President Trump called on them to increase to five percent of their respective GDP’s, up from the currently agreed upon two percent.
President Trump previously called on NATO members to increase defense spending in a post-inauguration press conference, a statement that builds on a major foreign policy goal of his first administration. I think they should lift their number not to two percent, but to five percent.NATO should be at five percent, not at two percent,” Trump said in reference to the agreement that requires NATO countries to commit two percent of their respective gross domestic product (GDP) to defense spending.
Trump’s calls were reiterated by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth when he met with European leaders earlier this week. “That’s why our message is so stark to our European allies. Now is the time to invest because you can’t make an assumption that America’s presence will last forever,” he said.
When asked about statements from Trump and Hegseth, Rutte indicated that NATO is very much in agreement. After stating that the message from the Trump Administration has been made clear, Rutte did note that European countries have increased defense spending dramatically since 2017. “By now we are spending 700 billion more on the European side of NATO than before President Trump came into office. It is absolutely still not enough. We have to do much much more,” he said.
“But the good thing is now that we have a process in place by which we can exactly determine what the gaps are in terms of long-range missiles, in terms of our armies, in terms of our logistics, in terms of our military mobility, in terms of our air defense, and it will require a lot of a lot more money than we spent so far. We will come to conclusions towards summer on this, but I can hear now from my European colleagues that they are willing to step up also when it comes now to Ukraine, helping with the peace deal, but also when it comes to spending more on defense,” Rutte continued, adding that it is only “fair.”
“Not only because President Trump wants this, and Pete Hegseth, but also because we have to defend ourselves, and going forward we cannot if we do not spend more here in Europe. And the effect is that we will be more in balance with the U.S.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Rutte praised the Trump Administration for taking the lead in seeking a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine and called on European leaders to do more. “What you see today, we had General Kellogg, President Trump’s special representative at NATO this morning with the ambassadors, and now we had this meeting here in Paris with many European leaders, and really Europe is now stepping up,” he said, adding that the meeting was “very successful.”
The NATO secretary general went on to say he was “disappointed” with European leaders who complained about Trump’s unilateral conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. “And they are now really starting to dialogue, to strategize how they can support the peace effort. And that is important because we know that post the peace deal there will be the needs to make the peace deal lasting and enduring, and that means we need security guarantees so Europe can play a role there with a clear backup from the United States. So this was good, this was really a good day we are moving forward here.”
When Trump first took office in 2017, just six out of 29 member nations were paying the required two percent. The president aggressively pushed for NATO countries to increase their defense spending due to the threat of Russian aggression, a proposal that drew laughs from European leaders at the time.
“Members of the alliance must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations,” Trump said during a meeting with NATO leaders in Brussels at the time. “Twenty-three of the 28 member nations are still not paying what they should be paying and what they are supposed to be paying for their defense. This is not fair to the people and taxpayers of the United States,” he added
The War in Ukraine caused NATO countries to rapidly re-think their lack of defense spending, however. As of this report, 23 out of 32 current NATO members have reached the agreed upon two percent threshold, while others are working to achieve it.
