Trump suggested NATO countries double their defense spending goal

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/polit...ing/index.html

Wants them to raise their goal of defense spending to 4% which is higher than the US which is at 3.5% of GDP.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested NATO leaders increase their defense spending to 4% -- doubling the 2% target that many NATO countries have yet to meet.

"During the President's remarks today at the NATO summit he suggested that countries not only meet their commitment of 2% of their GDP on defense spending, but that they increase it to 4%," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders confirmed in a statement.

Sanders said Trump "raised this same issue" at NATO last year.

"President Trump wants to see our allies share more of the burden and at a very minimum meet their already stated obligations," Sanders said.

But according to the latest numbers from NATO, the US doesn't even spend as much as Trump is calling on other countries to.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump said the US, "in actual numbers," is spending 4.2% of its GDP on defense. However, according to numbers just released by NATO on Tuesday, the US is expected to spend an estimated 3.5% of the GDP on defense in 2018. That is lower than last year's number, which was at 3.57%.

Germany's estimated for 2018 is 1.21%, slightly higher than last year's.

"On top of that, Germany is just paying a little bit over 1%, whereas the United States, in actual numbers, is paying 4.2% of a much larger GDP," Trump said during a breakfast with the NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

"So I think that's inappropriate also. You know, we're protecting Germany, we're protecting France. We're protecting everybody. And yet we're paying a lot of money to protect," Trump said.

One senior European diplomat said Trump's suggestion was "not good."

"The summit should send a strong signal to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, and now show strong differences between allies. We would prefer a different situation," the diplomat told CNN's Michelle Kosinski.

"But we're not worried about it. We compare it to fights among families. Things can get nasty, but it's still a family," the diplomat added.

Trump has long complained that NATO members are not meeting their fiscal obligations to the alliance.

[Zippyjuan]

NATO did issue a statement saying they would increase defense spending but did not say by how much (they need to increase spending just to meet their own goal of 2% of GDP) so this is not actually any policy change.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018...ls-summit.html

NATO pledges to boost defense spending

NATO leaders pledged their “unwavering commitment” to boost defense spending on Wednesday, following stern words from President Trump criticizing European leaders for spending too little.

The U.S. and European allies signed a declaration stating they are “committed to improving the balance of sharing the costs and responsibilities of alliance membership.”

The declaration comes after confrontational and testy discussions between Trump and other NATO leaders.


Since the election, Trump has criticized NATO countries for not paying their fair share, while suggesting he would only come to the defense of NATO nations that fulfilled their financial obligation.

Trump also has pressed NATO countries to fulfill their goal of spending 2 percent of their gross domestic products on defense by 2024. NATO estimates that 15 members, or just over half, will meet that benchmark based on current trends.

More at link.

[dannno]

3.5% of our GDP goes to NATO?!?!?!

Wow.. so glad Trump is President, Hillary would probably offer to pay 4% of our GDP to NATO..

[Zippyjuan]

Picture taken during a military fly-over seems to show that the parties have different visions of things.



https://qz.com/1325858/nato-summit-2...s-too-obvious/

[Zippyjuan]

3.5% of our GDP goes to NATO?!?!?!

Wow.. so glad Trump is President, Hillary would probably offer to pay 4% of our GDP to NATO..

No- that is our total military budget- not just what goes to NATO.

As we have written before, Trump is conflating NATO’s direct and indirect spending to claim that the U.S. “is paying for 90% of NATO.”

In direct costs, the U.S. currently pays about 22 percent of NATO’s “principal budgets” that are funded by all alliance members based on a cost-sharing formula that factors in the gross national income of each country. The principal budget categories include the civil budget, the military budget and the NATO Security Investment Programme (NSIP).

“Direct contributions are made to finance requirements of the Alliance that serve the interests of all 29 members — and are not the responsibility of any single member — such as NATO-wide air defence or command and control systems,” NATO says. “Costs are borne collectively, often using the principle of common funding.”

NATO says its military budget for 2018 is €1.325 billion (or about $1.55 billion). Its civil budget is €245.8 million (or about $289 million). And the ceiling for the NSIP is €700 million (or about $822 million). That means the U.S. share for all three combined would be around $590 million, at most.

https://www.factcheck.org/2018/07/tr...nato-spending/

That is the US contribution to NATO spending and does not include US forces stationed in NATO countries.

[Swordsmyth]

Keep pressuring them until NATO falls apart!
Set goals they won't meet and then bring the troops home when they don't!

I like it.

[shakey1]

Trump suggested NATO countries double their defense spending goal

... as they should.

[Swordsmyth]

[tod evans]

[Swordsmyth]

[timosman]

Picture taken during a military fly-over seems to show that the parties have different visions of things.



https://qz.com/1325858/nato-summit-2...s-too-obvious/

Trump appears to be looking for building code violations.

[oyarde]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/11/polit...ing/index.html

Wants them to raise their goal of defense spending to 4% which is higher than the US which is at 3.5% of GDP.

Four seems a reasonable request , with some effort that may actually get them to Three .

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

[Zippyjuan]

Did you tire of the deodorant spray picture already?

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Did you tire of the deodorant spray picture already?

Hmm; well, not really. I'm just for diversity.

[timosman]

You should add - unless you really want to. No pressure.