The Secretary General of NATO announced the unprecedented increase in the military expenses of the members

According to the report of the international group Tasnim news agency quoting “Stern” weekly newspaper, on the eve of the NATO summit, Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, has presented a new review of the allies’ defense spending.

According to him, Germany It has reported NATO’s estimated defense spending of €90.6 billion for this year and will therefore clearly meet NATO’s two percent target. As a new overview from NATO shows, this record amount matches Germany’s projected contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) of 2.12 percent. Therefore, this rate is higher than what was expected at the beginning of this year.

During Russia’s war against Ukraine, Germany aims to achieve the set goal. NATO’s defense spending, which was agreed for the first time in 2014, has been put in place. This law stipulates that member states allocate at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product annually to military budgets.

According to the new figures, 23 countries are expected to allies in the NATO military alliance to reach or even exceed their goals this year. The current leaders in this quota are Poland with defense spending amounting to 4.12% of GDP and Estonia with 3.43%. Both countries are still ahead of the United States, which according to the latest estimates is expected to reach 3.38 percent in 2024.

At the bottom of this ranking are countries like Spain, Slovenia and Luxembourg, which are currently below 1.3 percent. Belgium (1.30 percent), Canada (1.37 percent), Italy (1.49 percent) and Portugal (1.55 percent) will also significantly miss the NATO target.

According to the latest estimates, the current 32 NATO countries will spend about US$1.5 trillion (about €1.4 trillion) on defense in 2024. This figure, excluding inflation and exchange rate fluctuations, has increased by a total of 10.9 percent compared to the previous year. . According to published information, European allies and Canada alone will increase military spending by 17.9%. Preparing for a NATO summit in Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday hailed the development as the “biggest increase in decades.” According to him, these figures show that the European allies and Canada have assumed the responsibility of protecting all the members of the NATO alliance. Biden also spoke of the “unprecedented number” of allies who have now reached their defense spending targets.

With this sharp increase in defense spending, NATO allies especially They react to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. By significantly boosting deterrence and defenses, the aim is to make it clear to Kremlin President Vladimir Putin that an attack on a European NATO country would have no chance of success. Stoltenberg said that at the NATO summit in Washington on July 9-11, they will agree to further increase financial support for Ukraine.

These numbers and statistics can also be considered The re-election of “Donald Trump” in the US presidential elections in November will be useful. The Republican candidate made it clear during the election campaign that he would not support allies with low defense costs if Russia attacked. During his 2017-2021 presidency, Trump has repeatedly complained about what he sees as too little defense spending by European allies, and has even threatened at times to pull the United States out of the alliance.

NATO Secretary General’s support for the plan to create a headquarters to support Ukraine in Germany

Stoltenberg On Monday, in a conversation with the “De Volte” newspaper and the American media, he said that Trump did not criticize NATO in the first place. His criticism was aimed at NATO members who do not invest enough in this military alliance. The NATO Secretary General once again praised the planned headquarters in Wiesbaden for NATO’s planned operation to coordinate the delivery of weapons and training activities for the armed forces of Ukraine. In this regard, he said: the creation of a new headquarters is important “regardless of who the next president of the United States is.” , the United States will continue to invest about $968 billion in defense, more than double the combined total of the other 31 NATO partners, and thus remain the absolute number one internationally.

For comparison: Russian military spending by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) for 2023 was estimated at only about 109 billion dollars, which, taking into account the difference in purchasing power in the West, would be equivalent to 295 billion dollars. China’s spending was $220 billion, or $408 billion in terms of purchasing power.

“Donald Trump” recently angered his partners in the NATO military alliance with comments. . He announced that as the re-elected president, he will not defend NATO partners in case of Russian attack. This Republican also criticized the US military aid to Ukraine several times during the current election campaign.

Stoltenberg: Ukraine will not be given a specific date for membership.

In another part of his speech, Stoltenberg also said that at the July meeting in Washington, Kiev will not be given the prospect of setting a specific date for NATO membership. He said, however, that he hoped an agreement could be reached on stronger language provisions that would send a clear message about Ukraine’s views on membership. He added: We are currently working on it.

He also said: NATO is also currently working on putting Ukraine in a military position, which after Creating a political consensus in this alliance can immediately become a member of NATO.

Stoltenberg also emphasized that NATO will play a stronger role in the future in coordinating the delivery of weapons to Kiev and training. Ukrainian soldiers will play. Last week, the coalition’s defense ministers decided to establish a new headquarters in Wiesbaden that will centrally coordinate aid to Ukraine. According to him, by increasing the role of NATO, we will achieve more predictability and reliability. He stressed that this would also reduce the risk of gaps and delays where NATO allies do not deliver on what they promised. Best, the US Congress indicated that it blocked billions in aid to Ukraine for six months. Some NATO defense ministers also campaigned for the Wiesbaden headquarters, worried that a possible re-election of President Trump could block further aid. Stoltenberg said the creation of the new headquarters is important “regardless of who the next president of the United States is.”

NATO has no plans for military training on Ukrainian soil

Stoltenberg, in response to the question whether NATO will train Ukrainian soldiers on Ukrainian soil, said: NATO has no plans to conduct training inside Ukraine. NATO will continue to train Ukrainian soldiers outside of Ukraine.

However, several EU countries, led by French President Emmanuel Macron, Now they are ready to send their soldiers for training missions to Ukraine.

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