“Defence spending and burden-sharing will be high on the agenda” as NATO said in a statement released ahead of the summit of the 29 Allies in Brussels today and tomorrow (July 11, 12). NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg noted that “we expect 8 Allies to spend at least 2 percent of GDP on defence this year, compared to just 3 Allies in 2014.” In additional, he estimated that European Allies and Canada will add an “extra 266 billion US dollar” to defence between now and 2024.
But a showdown is expected in the summit as US President Donald Trump continued to blasts his own allies ahead of the meeting.
He tweeted yesterday:
Getting ready to leave for Europe. First meeting – NATO. The U.S. is spending many times more than any other country in order to protect them. Not fair to the U.S. taxpayer. On top of that we lose $151 Billion on Trade with the European Union. Charge us big Tariffs (& Barriers)!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2018
That was followed by European Council President Donald Tusk’s unusually blunt response:
Dear @realDonaldTrump. US doesn’t have and won’t have a better ally than EU. We spend on defense much more than Russia and as much as China. I hope you have no doubt this is an investment in our security, which cannot be said with confidence about Russian & Chinese spending 🙂
— Donald Tusk (@eucopresident) July 10, 2018
Trump then followed up by:
Many countries in NATO, which we are expected to defend, are not only short of their current commitment of 2% (which is low), but are also delinquent for many years in payments that have not been made. Will they reimburse the U.S.?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2018
The European Union makes it impossible for our farmers and workers and companies to do business in Europe (U.S. has a $151 Billion trade deficit), and then they want us to happily defend them through NATO, and nicely pay for it. Just doesn’t work!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2018
