2% of the GDP: Trump Sends EU Leaders Warning Letters Ahead of NATO Summit

Washington wants its NATO allies to increase their military spending and thus reduce the burden placed on the US.


President Donald Trump has reiterated this demand in letters sent to European leaders ahead of an upcoming NATO summit in Brussels.

"Germany has to spend more money. Spain, France. It's not fair what they've done to the United States," Trump told reporters on Friday.

Berlin, for its part, believes that it was fully on track to meet its defense spending obligations.

After meeting with her US counterpart, James Mattis, last week, the German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen said that Washington was satisfied with the projected uptick in Germany’s defense outlays, Sputnik reported.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was equally defensive arguing that his country “has halted the systematic fall in defense spending and takes part in a lot of military operations."

"I am not very impressed by this type of letter," Michel told reporters on the fringes an EU summit in Brussels.
  (Tasnim)
 30/6/18
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