NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg speaks during a news conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the State Department on June 18, 2024, in Washington.
| Photo Credit: AP
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on June 17 that 23 of the alliance’s 32 members were on track to meet a decade-old pledge to spend at least 2% of GDP on defence, a long-standing demand of Washington.
“Twenty-three allies are going to spend 2% of GDP or more on defence this year,” Mr. Stoltenberg told President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
“NATO allies are this year increasing defence spending by 18%. That’s the biggest increase in decades,” he said.
Mr. Biden’s rival in the November elections, Donald Trump, has long voiced anger at NATO allies he sees as not carrying their fair share, even recently suggesting he would encourage Russia to attack them if they do not pay.
When NATO allies made the pledge at a 2014 summit, only three countries met the target — the United States, Britain and Greece, which has longstanding tensions with neighboring Turkey.
Mr. Stoltenberg last reported that around 20 allies were meeting the target, with once hesitant nations such as Germany ramping up defence spending following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
