A group of four NATO leaders and a representative of the European Union said on Sunday that they agreed that it was time to invest more in defense spending, as Russia remains one of the main security threats in Europe amid the war in Ukraine, and as the Western leaders are bracing for the incoming Trump administration.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis argued that the era of spending 2% of a country’s GDP on defense was “probably history”, but he, along with the other four leaders present at the North-South Summit in Lapland, failed to say what that means. figure should look like.
“We know we have to spend more than 2%,” Mitsotakis said. “But it will become very clear… once we get in touch with the new president, what figure will we agree on within NATO?”
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of Greece attend a press conference of the North-South Summit of the Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo in Saariselka, Finnish Lapland, December 22, 2024. (Lehtikuva/Antti Aimo-Koivisto via REUTERS)
Putin says Russia is ready to compromise with Trump over war in Ukraine
The summit was convened by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo and was also attended by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
The leaders were questioned about a recent event report from the Financial Times that said that newly elected President Donald Trump plans to push NATO to increase its defense spending requirement from 2% to 5% – a requirement required of all countries, including the US, that spend just over 3% of their GDP would require them to dramatically increase defense spending. defense.
Trump’s transition team did not answer Fox News Digital’s questions about whether Trump will push all NATO countries, including the US, to dramatically increase defense spending.
Instead, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team said: “President Trump believes that European countries must meet their NATO defense spending obligations and increase their share of the burden for this conflict as the US paid significantly more, which is not fair to our countries. He will do whatever it takes to restore peace and rebuild American strength and deterrence on the world stage.”
Fox News Digital was also unable to clarify whether an increase in defense spending would be supported by Republican lawmakers, given the large number of conservatives in Congress, as well as its newly elected vice president, who have called for cuts to the American aid to Ukraine, as well as that of last week internal struggle in the House of Representatives among Republican lawmakers over spending disagreements.
Even as NATO leaders at the North-South Summit agreed that Russia is the ‘biggest threat’ to Europe they urged caution when it came to dealing with “rumors” surrounding the new Trump administration.
President Donald Trump speaks as he meets with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte during the NATO summit at The Grove, Wednesday, December 4, 2019, in Watford, England. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“I would wait to understand exactly what the real will of the new US president is,” Meloni said, according to a Bloomberg report. “In NATO, we all know and understand that we have to do more. Much of what we can do depends on the tools we can put on the table.”
The Finnish Prime Minister echoed a similar sentiment, saying: “Europe must take greater responsibility for its own security. This means that European countries must be strong leaders, both in the EU and in NATO.
“(Russia) is trying to consolidate power and sow division in Europe. For example, the geopolitical situation is also very challenging in the Middle East and North Africa,” Orpo added, according to Euro News.
Kristersson said spending more on defense was important partly so that European countries were less dependent on the US as “the main sponsor” of the alliance’s defense, but also to show Washington that European countries are taking defense “seriously.”
“European countries – individually, most of us and collectively – need to strengthen our defenses. And let’s do that,” he said.
Soldiers of the 93rd Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine fire a French MO-120-RT heavy mortar at Russian forces on the front line near the city of Bakhmut in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. (Iryna Rybakova via AP)
Trump during his first reign pushed NATO leaders to make good on their 2 percent defense spending pledge, which several countries have done — increasing the number of allies required to meet the terms of the NATO treaty from five in 2016 to nine in 2020.
But that number dropped to just six when Trump left office in 2021.
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However, in 2022, NATO leaders did this again began to reevaluate their defense budgets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and by 2024, a historic number of NATO allies had met their spending commitments, with 23 out of 32 countries spending at least 2% of their GDP on defense.
Only Poland spends more than 4% of its GDP on defense, while four countries spend more than 3%, including Estonia, the US, Latvia and Greece.
Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain have yet to meet their defense spending obligations.
