Germany Quibbles as top NATO official urges more defence spending
Germany Quibbles as top NATO official urges more defence spending
Spending
Brussels, April 5, 2023 (dpa/NAN) NATO must increase defence spending as in a contested and dangerous world alliance security cannot be taken for granted, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
The alliance chief told a meeting of NATO foreign ministers that he expected allies to agree on a new pledge of 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) as a minimum to be invested in defence.
Flush from admitting freshly minted new member Finland, NATO foreign ministers are gathered for a second day of talks focused on the familiar topics of China and defence spending.
A perennial issue, alliance members have long struggled to reach NATO’s self-imposed pledge to spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence by 2024, with the United States making up the majority of defence investment.
In 2022, seven of the alliance members met NATO’s self-imposed 2 per cent pledge on defence spending as a proportion of GDP, down from eight in 2021 and 11 in 2020.
This is according to the alliance’s annual report.
This is up however from just three countries in 2014, the year NATO members committed to reaching this spending pledge faster after Russia annexed Crimea in Ukraine.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine meant allies have to up defence spending but cautioned against using the 2 per cent-of-GDP pledge as the only metric.
“It’s so critical we don’t just talk about percentages, but also about the ability to achieve goals,’’ she said before the start of the meeting.
Baerbock noted that in economically difficult times, NATO members could meet the spending pledge as economic growth is lower without achieving any real military development.
Other NATO members are pushing for more spending.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu backed a target of 2.5 per cent.
Estonia has set a goal of at least 3 per cent of GDP spent on defence from next year, he added.
NATO allies were also hosting representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea to discuss China in the wake of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow.
Stoltenberg said allies were to confer with each other about how to deal with the growing strategic competition, including China’s increasing alignment with Russia.
As well as concerns that China was considering supplying arms to Russia and Beijing’s aggressive stance towards Taiwan, NATO allies were to discuss the Ukraine war’s impact on the Indo-Pacific region.
“What happens in Europe matters for the Indo-Pacific, for Asia. And what happens in Asia matters for Europe,’’ Stoltenberg said.
“And the war in Ukraine demonstrates that with all its global ramifications,’’ he said. (dpa/NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Cecilia Odey/Ekemini Ladejobi