Outgoing NATO chief's swipe at countries not paying their fair share on defence

05 April 2023 , 13:34

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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg spoke at the end of a two-day meeting of foreign affairs ministers (Image: AFP via Getty Images)

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg issued a thinly-veiled rebuke to countries failing to spend enough on defence today.

All 31 countries which are part of the military alliance are meant to spend at least 2% of their GDP on their armed forces.

But just eight members meet the benchmark - prompting a slap down from outgoing Secretary-General Mr Stoltenberg.

“Many allies are still below and some of them refer to this as something we strive towards, not a kind of requirement,” he said.

He hoped a crunch summit of leaders in July would demand “much stronger language” around the commitment.

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He said: “This is not some kind of ambitious goal in the distant future that we strive towards, it is something that we should be strongly committed to - 2% as a minimum, not as a ceiling.”

NATO’s 2014 summit in Newport, South Wales, created the 2% pledge but few countries which did not already meet it have managed to hit the target in the nine years since it was agreed.

Mr Stoltenberg's extended term as head of the alliance ends this year (AFP via Getty Images)

Latest alliance figures show only the US, UK, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Latvia meet the threshold.

Finland, which joined the coalition this week, spends about 2.02% of GDP on its armed forces, according to a separate analysis.

But a host of other NATO countries, including Germany, France and Canada, do not meet the benchmark.

Speaking at the end of a two-day crunch summit at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Mr Stoltenberg said: “When NATO leaders met in 2014 in the United Kingdom, in Wales, we agreed a defence investment pledge where we used 2% of GDP as the guideline.

“But then we refer to 2% as something we should ‘strive towards, move towards’ - so it has been interpreted by many allies as a ceiling, something we should move towards, which is the language we use in that pledge.”

He hoped the alliance would commit to a beefed-up commitment when leaders including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, meet in Lithuanian capital Vilnius in July for their annual summit.

“I actually think it will make a difference if not only I say that 2% should be a minimum but that all allies agree that 2% should be a minimum floor,” said former Norwegian PM Mr Stoltenberg.

“War in Ukraine has made it even more obvious that we need to spend more on defence."

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Ben Glaze