The United States expects its allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to provide a clear plan to increase defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
According to Bloomberg, this was stated by US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker.
According to him, the United States needs something other than the commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense, which was agreed at the alliance summit in Wales in 2014.
Whitaker emphasized that Washington expects allies to take clear steps to achieve the goal of defense spending of 5% of GDP.
"We must make sure that all our allies understand that it should be about hard defense capabilities first," Whitaker said.
Bloomberg writes that at the upcoming summit in The Hague, NATO allies are likely to sign a target agreement that would provide for the allocation of 3.5% of GDP for core defense spending and another 1.5% of GDP for other defense initiatives.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, last week, US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said that Washington would begin discussions on reducing its contingent in Europe by the end of the year.
Recall that in March of this year, the Financial Times wrote, citing its own sources, that European NATO countries are working on a plan to divide the US role among the alliance members.
Who we are: About us, Contacts. How we write news and our principles: Editorial code. We did our best. If you found this valuable – please support us.
To request a correction, please send an email.