Former US President and current US presidential candidate Donald Trump is considering, according to some sources, that if he becomes president again, he would force the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to increase defense spending to 3 percent of GDP. So that the member states’ contribution to collective defense against threats from Russia and China is higher. He was supposed to agree on this last month during a meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda, reports The Telegraph. At the same time, Trump rejects the “tricks” used in the calculations.
Two percent of GDP for NATO defense is the current goal that all member countries should reach. However, only a few achieve this. According to Trump, the desired goal should be increased by one percent. According to the former US president, accounting rules should also be changed so that spending on military aid to Ukraine is not included in the target, which would push several other countries below the current target of 2 percent of GDP. According to a source close to the former US president, Trump also discussed these topics with Polish President Andrzej Duda last month, where an agreement was probably reached on the issue of around 3 percent.
Duda has previously claimed that 3 percent of GDP is needed to defend against “growing threats”, including the start of a “direct confrontation between Russia and NATO”. However, only Poland, the USA and Greece reached the level of 3 percent last year. Only 11 of the 32 NATO members achieved the current goal of 2 percent, namely: the USA, the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, Hungary, Slovakia and Denmark.
This week on Tuesday, the Director General for Defense Industry and Space of the European Union, Timo Pesonen, also spoke about the 3 percent target. On Tuesday, he said that raising the target to 3 percent is already being discussed behind closed doors among some member states.
On Thursday, UK government sources also cautiously expressed support for a reassessment of NATO’s spending target. But they suggested that it should rise to 2.5 percent of GDP and that spending on Ukraine should still be included. “There is a debate to be had about the 2 per cent target and whether it is at the right point, but the UK has been clear that 2.5 per cent is the target we want other countries to get to,” said one insider. “Ukraine is vital to the defense of the UK and allies. That is why we will include it in our defense spending,” the source added to The Telegraph.
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