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Showing Original Post only (View all)Trump suggests NATO allies raise target spending to 4 percent [View all]
Source: The Hill
President Trump suggested Wednesday that NATO allies should increase their defense spending from 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) to 4 percent.
"During the Presidents remarks today at the NATO summit he suggested that countries not only meet their commitment of 2% of their GDP on defense spending, but that they increase it to 4%. The President raised this same issue when he was at NATO last year," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.
"President Trump wants to see our allies share more of the burden and at a very minimum meet their already stated obligations," she added. Bulgarian President Rumen Radev first told a national radio station that Trump had raised the prospect of a heightened spending commitment during a meeting with world leaders at the NATO summit.
NATO is not a [market] at which one can buy security. But yes, on the other hand, President Trump is right, as each country should build its effective capabilities, and the unwillingness with which Bulgaria spends money on defense is obvious, Radev said, according to Bloomberg.
Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/396485-trump-suggests-nato-allies-raise-target-spending-level
AP Live coverage:
[div class"excerpt"]6 p.m.
President Donald Trump has suggested that NATO allies commit to spending 4 percent of their GDP on defense, up from the current goal of 2 percent by 2024.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirms Trump raised the idea at a closed-door meeting with fellow NATO leaders Wednesday in Brussels.
It's unclear by what date he'd like to see the increase.
Trump has been pressing member countries to spend more on defense, accusing them of freeloading off the U.S.
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