To be clear: “NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Monday that 23 of its 32 member states were expected to meet the alliance’s defense spending commitments this year. That is 13 countries more compared to last year’s data, and five more than an earlier estimate in February.”
This kind of ramp up takes time to come to fruition. It’s not like we can just earmark the funds and suddenly be prepared for Russia’s future designs on the Baltics. We’ve got to (at minimum) keep them busy with Ukraine for as long as possible, and ideally get Ukraine free and clear ASAP ahead of a NATO bid. Especially as a Russian defeat would hopefully leave no opportune moment for China to take on further territorial ambitions. These things are all connected. Lot more lives on the line than most realize.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
At the 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius, member states agreed to make 2% of national GDP the minimal defense spending commitment rather than the highest target to aim for.
This commitment, coupled with the impression of Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, appears to have had an effect, as NATO’s most recent defense expenditure report shows.
The Netherlands, whose outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte iseyeing to become NATO’s next Secretary,General, is also expected to fulfill the defense spending target.
Countries including Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Spain will not reach the NATO minimum defense spending goal.
Former US President Donald Trump, who is hoping to return to the White House after the November elections, rattled the alliance in February saying that he would “encourage” Russia to attack members of NATO who had not met their financial commitments.
Ellison also believes that member states will reaffirm their defense spending commitments at the upcoming NATO summit in Washington ahead of the US elections in November.
The original article contains 829 words, the summary contains 153 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Good, maybe America can lower ours and use that for healthcare instead.
I can dream at least
