A group of four NATO leaders and a representative of the European Union said Sunday they agreed it was time to invest more in defense spending as Russia remains Europe’s main security threat amid the war in Ukraine. , and Western leaders are prepared for what’s to come. Trump administration.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis argued that the era of spending 2% of the country’s GDP on defense was “probably history”, but he stopped short of saying so with four other leaders present at the North-South summit in Lapland, Finland. Missed. The figure should look like this.
“We know we need to spend more than 2%,” Mitsotakis said. “But it will become absolutely clear… once we negotiate with the new president, what figures we will agree to within NATO.”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christerson, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at a North-South summit of Finnish Prime Ministers Participate in press conferences. Petteri Orpo in Saariselka, Finnish Lapland, December 22, 2024. (Lehtiku/Antti Aimo-Koivisto via Reuters)
Putin says Russia ready to compromise with Trump on Ukraine war
The summit was called by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, and was also attended by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christerson, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
The leaders were questioned about a recent report from the Financial Times that President-elect Donald Trump wanted to pressure NATO to increase its defense spending requirement from 2% to 5% – a requirement that The demand will have to be made by all countries, including America which only spends. To drastically increase spending on defence, to more than 3% of its GDP.
The Trump transition team did not respond to questions from Fox News Digital about whether Trump is pressuring all NATO countries, including the US, to drastically increase defense spending.
Instead, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team said, “President Trump believes that European countries should meet their NATO defense spending obligations and increase their share of the burden for this conflict, as the U.S. Paid significantly more, which is not fair to us taxpayers. He will take the necessary steps to restore peace and rebuild American strength and deterrence on the world stage.”
Fox News Digital also could not find clarity on whether increased defense spending would be supported by GOP lawmakers, given the large majority of conservatives in Congress, as well as their vice president-elect, who has called for cuts in US aid to Ukraine. Have called. Also, last week there was an internal fight in the House among Republican lawmakers over disagreements regarding spending.
Even though NATO leaders at the North-South summit agreed that Russia is Europe’s “biggest threat”, they urged caution in dealing with “rumors” about the incoming Trump administration.
President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during the NATO summit at The Grove in Watford, England, on Wednesday, December 4, 2019. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)
NATO chief urges members to ‘turbocharge’ defense production as he pictures world bound for war
“I will wait to understand what the new president of the United States really wants,” Meloni said, Bloomberg reported. “At NATO, we all know and understand that we have to do more. What we can do depends on the tools we are able to put on the table.”
The Finnish Prime Minister expressed similar sentiments and said, “Europe has to take more responsibility for its own security. This means that European countries have to become stronger leaders in both the EU and NATO.
,[Russia] Trying to consolidate power and create discord in Europe. According to Euro News, for example, the geopolitical situation in the Middle East and North Africa is also very challenging.”
Christerson said it was important to spend more on defense, so that European countries would be less dependent on the US being the “main sponsor” of the alliance’s defense, but also to show Washington that European countries take defense “seriously”. Let’s take.
He said, “European countries – individually, most of us, and collectively – need to strengthen our defence. And let’s do that.”
Soldiers of Ukraine’s 93rd Mechanized Brigade fire a French MO-120-RT heavy mortar at Russian forces on the front line near the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (Irina Rybakova via AP)
Trump during his first administration pressured NATO leaders to meet their 2% defense spending pledge, which many did – increasing the number of allies required to meet the terms of the NATO agreement from five in 2016 to nine in 2020. Did it.
But after Trump’s departure in 2021, this number dropped to just six.
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However, by 2022, NATO leaders once again began to reevaluate their defense budgets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and by 2024, a historic number of NATO allies had fulfilled their spending agreements, In which 23 out of 32 countries were spending at least 2%. of their GDP on defence.
Only Poland spends more than 4% of its GDP on defence, while four countries spend more than 3%, including Estonia, the US, Latvia and Greece.
Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain have not yet met their defense spending commitments.
