(TheIndependentStar.com) – Former President Donald Trump has just been proven right to pressure America’s European allies to invest more in their own defense instead of constantly passing the buck to the US – as for the first time in decades, most NATO members have reached the necessary defense spending target.
The US-led NATO alliance features thirty-one nations and is about to welcome Sweden as its thirty-second member.
The NATO nations are now now hiking its military expenditures against the backdrop of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Wednesday that eighteen of the alliance members would reach the target of spending at least two percent of their GDP on defense.
The fact that more than half of NATO’s members are now fulfilling their defense spending commitments is attributed to President Trump’s constant demands for change, Breitbart News points out in a report.
Historically, at the end of the Cold War, NATO’s European members spent an average of three-and-a-half percent of their GDP on defense, compared with six-and-a-half percent by the United States.
This figure declined sharply after the Soviet Union collapse. It averaged two-and-a-half percent in the early 1990s.
Despite Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and subsequent promises by NATO members to increase defense spending, the figure alarmingly fell to under one-and-a-half percent by 2015.
The landscape began to shift with Donald Trump’s assertive rhetoric during the 2016 Presidential Election campaign and his tenure in office, where he consistently pressured NATO members to contribute their fair share.
European defense spending then started to climb. It surpassed one-and-a-half percent in 2019, and now surpassed two percent in 2024.
Thirteen countries are still not meeting expectations. These have been called “delinquents” by Trump.
All European NATO countries’ collective defense spending has reached two percent of GDP for the first time in a quarter of a century.
“We are making real progress. Today I can announce our latest figures. Since the investment pledge was made in 2014, European allies and Canada have added more than $600 billion for defense.” Stoltenberg said.
The NATO chief added that US allies in Europe will invest a combined total of $380 billion in defense this year.
“Last year, we saw an unprecedented eleven percent rise across European allies and Canada. This year, I expect 18 allies to spend two percent of their GDP on defense. That is another record number, a six-fold increase from 2014 when only three allies met the target,” he said.
“European allies are spending more. However, some allies still have a way to go,” he concluded.
