BRUSSELS: Spurred on by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the spectre of Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House, more of NATO’s European members are finally hitting the alliance’s defence spending target.
But as leaders gear up to celebrate at a NATO summit in Washington there is a clear feeling that will not be sufficient to tackle the challenges it faces.
“Even in countries historically reluctant to spend more on defence, there is now a growing sense of the importance of greatly increased defence spending,” said Ian Lesser, from the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank.
“I think, broadly speaking, in the next years we’re looking at levels of defence spending that will begin to approach those of the Cold War.”
A decade after setting a spending goal at two percent of gross domestic product, just over two-thirds of NATO’s 32 countries are now expected to reach or top that threshold this year.
That is up from only three allies in 2014.
The increase in spending, which includes European heavyweights Germany and France, will be heavily showcased in Washington as NATO stages its show of unity.
That is designed to send a message to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin as he wages his war in Ukraine and menaces NATO from the east.
But it is also a message for former US leader Donald Trump as he seeks to reclaim the Oval Office from incumbent Joe Biden at elections in November.
Like other US leaders, upset that Washington shoulders too much of the burden with its vast defence budget, Trump spent his time in office demanding European countries do more.
On the campaign trail in February he unleashed a firestorm by saying he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell” it wants to NATO allies not coughing up enough.
‘Hot war’
A year after turning the two-percent benchmark from a target to a floor for spending at a summit in Vilnius, a growing number of NATO allies are already pushing to go further.
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