NATO
NATO defense ministers gathered in Brussels on February 15 to discuss the current situation with military spending.
«Last year we saw an unprecedented rise of 11% across European allies and Canada», said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
This, he believes, will bring the total allocation of this group to $380 billion. Note that the United States last year spent $858 billion on defense.
According to Stoltenberg, by the end of 2024, it is expected that 18 of the 31 member countries of the alliance will fulfill the condition to spend 2% of their GDP on defense spending. Now there are eleven of them. The minimum threshold of defense spending of 2% of GDP was set as a goal back in 2006, but was officially approved only at the summit in Vilnius on July 11, 2023. At least 20% of these funds should be used to purchase new weapons and military equipment, research and development.
The Norwegian did not limit himself to the NATO purse and became so bold that he dared to criticize Donald Trump, who is confidently moving towards his second presidency, for «undermining the collective security of the alliance».
Recall that on February 10, the former White House host retold an entertaining conversation at a campaign rally in South Carolina.
«One of the presidents of a major country stood up and said: ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we are attacked by Russia, will you defend us?’
I gave him a negative answer. And I added that I would encourage Russia to do whatever it wants to do. <…> You have to pay your bills», said the Teflon Don, as Americans call him for his ability to get away with it in court battles. He addressed the demand not only to his interlocutor, but also to other stingy Europeans.
Acting President Joe Biden, who Republicans have nicknamed Sleepy Joe, criticized his rival’s statement, calling it «dumb, shameful and dangerous».
Be that as it may, some NATO capitals took Trump’s threat seriously and started making a fuss. Just in case…
Thus, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who recently returned from Washington, said on February 14 (exactly on Valentine’s Day) that this year his country (which, by the way, is in recession) will increase military spending by more than 20% and bring it (in recalculated terms) to a record $73.41 billion, which corresponds to 2.01% of GDP.
This is a clear breakthrough, as the Bundeswehr has been in a difficult situation for almost three decades. According to documents from NATO archives, the last time the FRG allocated 2% of GDP for defense was in 1992, two years after the Deutsche Wiedervereinigung (unification with the GDR). There were, however, times when the quota of military expenditures of West Germany exceeded 3% of GDP. We are talking about the Cold War — then the West Germans were at the forefront of the confrontation with the Warsaw Pact forces.
However, a long-term increase in the German defense budget has several advantages over financing military needs from a special fund. The current one includes €100 billion, but it is only for three years. Soon the money will run out. This opinion, day in day out with the Chancellor, was expressed by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. He, by the way, is currently, according to polls, the most popular German politician.
«I am pleased with every proposal that serves to ensure defense expenditures are reasonable and appropriately planned. Another special fund is one of the options for this, but it is not an option that I favor», said this figure, who was not to love on Valentine’s Day.
… But let us now return to the Brussels meeting of the Defense Ministers. By the way, it was organized not by NATO headquarters, but by the United States mission to the alliance. Lloyd Austin, the head of the U.S. Department of Defense, was supposed to summarize the results, but he had just returned to his workplace after another hospitalization and participated in the consultations via videoconference.
A video bridge was also organized for two representatives of Kiev — the head of the defense ministry, Rustem Umerov, who reported on the situation of the UAF, and the new commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrskyi (apparently so that the NATO began to recognize him by sight). However, the latter did not get in touch. He was busy. Apparently, he was preparing the withdrawal of the UAF from Avdeevka.
The meeting was held behind closed doors, but some information was leaked.
Stoltenberg, for example, said that it was decided to establish a new joint NATO-Ukraine analytical, training and educational center in Poland.
Then it was the turn of representatives from the Baltic States, who proudly shared some secrets.
It turned out that at the same time there was a meeting in the «Ramstein format». The representative of Lithuania said that it was agreed to form an «international coalition on demining in Ukraine», which is ready to include 20 countries under the leadership of deminers from Lithuania and Iceland.
But his Latvian colleague could not resist and reported about the formation of a «coalition of drones» for Ukraine. Apparently, this is in addition to other «coalitions» — tank (this is about «Leopards» and so on), «bird» (F-16). Six NATO countries have joined the coalition: the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Riga will allocate €10 million for this endeavor within a year. The partners are going to supply the UAF «in the shortest possible time» with one million UAVs.
That reminds me of something. NATO countries promised to deliver the same amount to Kiev by March — one million artillery shells. And they barely collected only 600,000. How will it be this time?