After Donald Trump’s controversial departure, NATO chief advocates encouraging military spending

After Donald Trump’s vengeful departure, NATO remains on the defensive. Most Atlantic Alliance members will reaffirm the military spending target set for 2024, its Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday. Enough to answer the criticism of the likely Republican candidate in the US presidential election, who a few days earlier attacked European defaulters. Eighteen out of 31 countries will reach 2% of GDP in military spending this year – the minimum level set by the organization, its leader assured.

“A record figure,” he congratulated himself in the press on the eve of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. In a sign of the remarkable acceleration in investment, only 11 countries reached this target last year and only three a decade ago. “We are making real progress, European allies are spending more,” insisted Jens Stoltenberg, calling for “not to weaken NATO’s deterrence authority.” “We must leave no room for possible miscalculations or misunderstandings in Moscow about the extent of our preparation, our commitment and our determination to defend our allies,” he added. NATO has not revealed the list of countries that have reached the 2% target, but Germany has indicated it will join this year and France next year.

“Still a long way to go”

The statements are a direct response to Donald Trump’s remarks, which angered several Alliance leaders on Sunday. If Washington has long called for increased defense spending among European countries, which represent 29 of NATO’s 31 members, the former American president proved it with a speech openly hostile to the organization. If elected to the White House, he has threatened not to intervene to support member states that have not invested enough in their defense in the event of a Russian attack, which is increasingly feared after the war in Ukraine. “You have to pay your bills,” he said.

The comments were considered “dangerous” or “irresponsible” by some leaders of allied countries, including American President Joe Biden himself, Donald Trump’s likely election rival, or German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Such declarations “undermine the security of all of us, including the security of the United States,” Jens Stoltenberg also reacted after the speech of the former American president.

But the NATO chief on Wednesday assessed that much remains to be done regarding the military investments of several members: “Some allies still have a long way to go,” he stressed. At the same time, let us recall that “we agreed at the summit (in Vilnius in Lithuania, held in July 2023) that all allies should invest 2% and that this 2% is a minimum.”

Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 helped Europeans invest more in their defense, but it was only after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine that the 2% threshold became a floor rather than a spending ceiling. Currently, the United States remains the largest contributor to NATO’s budget.