After the words of the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, in which he harangued Russia to do “whatever the hell it wants” with any allied country that did not spend enough on defense, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, has advanced that this year 18 countries of the 31 that make up the organization will already comply with the commitment of 2% of GDP.
“This year we expect 18 allies to spend 2% of their GDP on defense. This is another record,” announced Stoltenberg, in a press conference prior to a meeting that will take place between NATO Defense Ministers and the Ramstein format.
Ten years ago, the Alliance committed that by 2024 all allies would spend 2% of GDP on defense, although at the last summit in Vilnius, in Lithuania, the countries stated that the objective was not a ceiling, but the minimum required. . In fact, in 2014, only three countries met the objective, at the end of this year there will be “six times more” countries, which already means that more than half of the allies spend at least 2%.
According to the latest data provided by the Alliance, in 2024, NATO’s European partners will have invested a total of “$380 billion in defense”, for the first time exceeding 2% of GDP as a whole.
However, despite the announcement, there are still countries that are far from meeting the objective, such as Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, although they have announced significant increases in this regard, especially since the war in Ukraine broke out, almost two years ago.
Asked about Trump’s words, Stoltenberg insisted that “a strong NATO is important for the United States, because it also makes them stronger, but also their national security.” Furthermore, he recalled that the first and only time that Article 5, that of collective defense, was activated after the 9/11 attacks, requested by the United States. “The United States has never fought a war alone, it has always been with its allies, from the Korean War to the Afghanistan War,” noted the Norwegian politician. Likewise, he recalled that “any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines our entire security.”
However, he has also urged that countries that have not yet complied should do so, because Trump’s criticism was not against the Alliance “but against those who do not spend enough on NATO, and this is a valid point,” and He recalled that it has been a recurring demand between the different US administrations. “The good news is that it is already being done, that more and more allies are complying and others have committed that they will arrive very soon.”
