Posted on 11/30/2019 4:07:18 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
BRUSSELS — NATO nations are increasing spending on defense, with nine of the alliance’s 29 members now meeting guidelines, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday, ahead of a summit next week where President Donald Trump is expected to urge leaders yet again to increase military expenditures.
The top-tier spending club — with at least 2% of annual gross domestic allocated for defense — expanded by one country and now includes Bulgaria, according to figures released by the military alliance.
EU countries and Canada have collectively boosted their defense spending every year since 2015, motivated first by Russia’s conflict with Ukraine and then by Mr. Trump’s threats to pull the United States from NATO if they did not ante up more cash.
“All NATO allies decided to invest more, and now we are delivering on that,” Mr. Stoltenberg said.
Leaders will meet in London starting Tuesday for a quick summit.
NATO leaders agreed in 2014 to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense by 2024, a goal that many of them have struggled to achieve. Bulgaria’s passing grade may be only temporary, since it is purchasing eight F-16 fighter jets this year, a major but one-time outlay that brought spending up to 3.25% of GDP, second only to the United States when measured in comparison to the size of the economy.
Before the decision to buy the jets, the country’s defense spending was estimated at 1.61% of GDP this year, solidly in the middle of the pack at NATO.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
PING!
” expanded by one country and now includes Bulgaria”
I’m sorry, but NOBODY in America will go to war to protect Bulgaria...or at least 1/2 of NATO countries.
The treaty is an anachronism. AND it threatens the national security of the United States.
Unilateral withdraw. Today if possible.
As I have said for decades, we don’t need to be in any organisations Turkey is part of.
More winning!
Yup. It’s been time to get our troops out of Europe for some time now. Let them defend themselves. They don’t want us there anyway.
no doubt a quid quo pro was somehow involved with, you know, something like: “The U.S. is going to withdraw from NATO if ya’ll don’t pay up” ... someone notify Nadler so he can add this to his articles of impeachment ...
I concur. NATO is a dead duck, and has long outlasted is relevance.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.