The non-US defense spending at NATO is set to rise in 2017, handing out a partial victory to the US President Donald Trump, who, both during his campaign and after inauguration office called on NATO members to spend more and reach their 2 percent defense spending commitments. At NATO headquarter meeting last month, President Trump once again called on members to contribute more. Only five of NATO’s 29 members met its target to spend 2 percent of economic output on defense in 2016, prompting Donald Trump to repeatedly castigate allies for not paying their way. Speaking at the NATO headquarter, he said, “If all NATO members had spent just 2 percent of their GDP on defense last year, we would have had another $119bn for our collective defense and for the financing of additional NATO reserves”. While President Trump called the 2 percent spending as a bare minimum, NATO diplomats insisted that the formal commitment made by allies is to work towards the 2 percent target by 2024.

NATO’s top civilian Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO spending in 2017 is set to increase by $12 billion thanks to increases in defense spending by Canada and European allies. He added that Romania will reach the 2 per cent target later this year, and Lithuania and Latvia will reach the threshold in 2018. At present only the US, UK, Estonia, Poland, and Greece meet the target.