NATO will not heed Donald Trump's proposal for a massive increase in defense spending, but is likely to agree to go beyond its current target, according to Western officials, Reuters News Agency points out.
The US president-elect said on Tuesday that members of the military alliance must spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, a big increase from the current target of 2% and a level that no NATO country s, including the United States, has not reached it at present, writes A2.
Officials from NATO countries said they agreed that defense spending should rise further, but did not endorse the 5% figure, which analysts said would be politically and economically unfeasible for nearly all members. It would require hundreds of billions of dollars in additional funding. However, a new target is likely to be reached at a NATO summit in The Hague in June, prompted by fears that Russia could attack a NATO country after Ukraine and by Trump's prodding, officials told Reuters. .
Some officials expect NATO's 32 members to agree, after much wrangling, on a target of around 3% of GDP. But even that would be a stretch for many, who barely meet or fall short of the 2% target now, a decade after it was set.
"It looks like there will be a change," Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto told Reuters.
"I don't think it will be 5%, which would be impossible for almost every nation in the world at the moment, but it won't be 2%, which we are already trying to achieve, but it will be more than two".
Some officials and analysts see Trump's 5% suggestion as a deliberately high opening offer to jumpstart months of negotiations and expect he may settle for something closer to 3%.
The current security environment suggests that European countries should spend around 3% of GDP on defence, she said. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chairwoman of the European Parliament's Defense subcommittee, said Europe should increase spending, but not fixate on an arbitrary figure. (A2 Televizion)
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