4% of GDP: Trump pushes Nato allies to double military spending

BRUSSELS: US President Donald Trump told Nato leaders on Wednesday that they should increase their defence spending to 4% of their country’s economic output, double the group’s current goal of two percent. Nato allies shrugged off the demand as part and parcel of Trump’s brash push for allies to spend more on their own defence at a summit in Brussels, with a quip from the alliance’s chief that it should aim to meet its goal before reaching further.
“We should first get to 2%,” Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, adding that eight of the 29 allies were meeting that target, while others had a plan to do — turning a leaf on years of defence budget cuts.
Striking a strident tone at the summit, Trump’s aspirational target of 4% of gross domestic product was above the United States own spending on defence. The US, the world’s biggest military power, spent some 3.57% on defence last year, according to Nato figures.
A White House spokeswoman said his remarks came as he was urging leaders to increase their outlays on defence and were not a formal proposal. “Trump wants to see our allies share more of the burden and at a very minimum meet their already stated obligations,” Sarah Sanders told reporters A source close to French President Emmanuel Macron also played down Trump’s words as rhetoric, saying “it is not a new demand”.
All 29 Nato leaders, including Trump, backed a joint statement committing themselves to greater “burden sharing” and to the the alliance’s founding commitment that an attack on one member is an attack on them all — with no mention of the 4%.
Trump arrived on the back of a barrage of criticism of Europe on issues ranging from trade to energy and above all his claims that the continent freeloads on the back of America for its defence. He then set the tone for the day with a blistering attack on key ally Germany at a breakfast meeting with Nato’s Stoltenberg.

Trump told Stoltenberg that Germany was wrong to support an $11-billion Baltic Sea pipeline to import even more Russian gas while being slow to meet targets for Nato spending to protect against Russia.
“We’re supposed to be guarding against Russia and Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia… Germany is a captive to Russia because it is getting so much of its energy from Russia.”
Trump appeared to substantially overstate German reliance on Russian energy and to imply Berlin was funding a pipeline which German Chancellor Angela Merkel says is a commercial venture.

She hit back at Trump’s remark by contrasting her own experience of growing up in Soviet-controlled East Germany with the sovereign, united Germany now playing a major role in Nato.
Trump and Merkel later held businesslike talks on the sidelines of the summit. Trump said he had a “very, very good relationship” with Merkel, who described the two as “good partners”.

A source close to Macron said Trump had voiced his “personal attachment” to Europe and gave “rather positive and constructive messages” to his allies. “There is no break-up between US and Europe,” the source said after Macron & Trump held “friendly” talks.
But with tensions in the Western alliance smouldering over Trump’s trade tariffs on European steel and his demands for more contributions to ease the burden on US taxpayers, his earlier remarks fuelled concerns among allies for the US role in keeping the peace that has reigned since World War II.
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