Trump again require the allies to increase military spending
The President of the United States on the eve of the NATO summit appealed to Western leaders.
In anticipation of the July NATO summit, US President, Donald trump has written to the allies of the letter with the requirement to increase military spending, reports The New York Times (NYT). Among the countries receiving these messages, the publication describes, in particular, Germany, Canada, Belgium and Norway. In the letters trump notices that after a year of constant statements of the US concerning the fact that members of the NATO Alliance obligations, no significant action was not taken. The newspaper cites passages from the letter of the President German Chancellor Angela Merkel:
As I said at our meeting in April, the United States is growing discontent due to the fact that our allies do not fulfill their promises. The United States spends more resources on the defense of Europe, while the economies of European countries including German, thriving, and security problems remain unresolved. For us this situation is no longer acceptable.Donald Trepresent USA
In his letter, trump refers to the decision of the NATO summit in Wales 2014 in which the expenses of the member countries of the block on defense should be 2% of GDP. Today this figure reaches only eight countries, estimated by “RIA Novosti”: for example, military spending is 3.58% of GDP, Canada — 1,29%, Germany 1.2%. In a letter to Merkel, trump also wrote that he was “increasingly difficult to explain to American citizens why some NATO countries do not share the responsibility for maintaining collective security, while us military die abroad or return home with serious injuries,” the NYT quotes the President.
The letter, according to the newspaper, was sent at the end of last month. On the sidelines of last June 28-29 EU summit, the Prime Minister of Belgium Charles Michel said that “not very impressed by such a letter” (quoted by Deutsche Welle). Merkel previously promised that the military budget of Germany to 2024 would only reach 1.5% of GDP, reports Deutsche Welle.
11-12 July in Brussels will host the NATO summit, which among others will be discussed and the issue of increasing military expenditures of member countries of the block. Last year’s NATO summit began with the same accusations of the three allies, reminds the German Spiegel. In the past year, relations between the United States and their partners only escalated, reaching a peak voltage at the summit “the seven” at the beginning of June. The differences relate primarily to the imposition by Washington of import duties on steel and aluminum and all trade policies trump, and weaken Europe’s position on the world market, as well as his vision for immigration policy. European politicians fear that the intransigence trump will lead to the failure of the NATO summit, which the other presidents had a rather formal character. “The summit without big news now would be the best option,” said an unnamed European diplomat to Foreign Policy magazine.
The atmosphere and the results of the last summit “the seven” has allowed many experts to talk about the decline of the era of the unified West. So, a political scientist Fyodor Lukyanov in the lecture of the Council on foreign and defense policy recalls that politically unified the West — a rather new phenomenon, formed during the cold war as the core of the confrontation between the socialist Eastern bloc. Today, in the absence of the Communist threat, the West needs a new imperative for enterprises, which after almost thirty years after the collapse of the bipolar system has not yet been found, sums up the expert.
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