GUIDANCE

The NATO Summit Spotlights Its Defense Spending Standard

Jul 11, 2018 | 09:30 GMT

U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speak May 25, 2017, at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg speak May 25, 2017, at NATO headquarters. During this year's NATO summit in Brussels, Trump will pressure alliance members to spend more on their own defense.

(BENOIT DOPPAGNE/AFP/Getty Images)

Highlights

  • The United States will pressure its NATO allies during the military bloc's July 11-12 summit in Brussels to spend more on their own defense.
  • Although it is NATO's most powerful member state, the United States still derives great benefits from the alliance.
  • The commitment from each NATO member to spend at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense does not adequately account for the different security priorities of the alliance's disparate states.

Fed up with what it perceives as an unequal burden sharing, the United States is preparing to put considerable pressure on its NATO allies during a summit in Brussels on July 11 and 12. U.S. President Donald Trump already has foreshadowed this pressure, which could include threats to withdraw U.S. forces from Europe or to cancel major NATO exercises, by sending strongly worded letters to the leaders of several NATO allies, including Germany, Belgium, Norway and Canada. While the United States has a case to make that the alliance's member states are not living up to their commitment to spend at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on their own defense, NATO remains a critical component of the United States' global dominance....

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