(Breitbart)—Members of the Western NATO military alliance reportedly agreed to increasing defence spending to five per cent of GDP within the next decade in a major victory for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has long demanded that America’s allies pay more for their defence.
Ahead of the NATO summit this week at The Hague in the Netherlands, members agreed in principle to increasing individual nation-state defence spending to five per cent of GDP by the year 2035 at the latest, German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported. The figure would be the first time NATO has set itself a formalised, increased spending floor since the two per cent agreed on at the Cardiff summit in 2014.
Even over a decade later now a considerable number of NATO members still don’t hit that two per cent, though, including Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, and Spain.
Nevertheless the new deal, which came in the wake of pressure from the Trump administration, stipulates that at least 3.5 per cent of GDP must be spent directly on military needs, while the additional 1.5 per cent can be devoted to related defence costs.
While socialist-run Spain had initially threatened to block the agreement, Madrid is said to have dropped such plans after securing an exemption from the new spending target.
- Read More: breitbart.com