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Europe Moves Closer to Meeting Trump Demand on Defense Spending

Europe Moves Closer to Meeting Trump Demand on Defense Spending

(Bloomberg) -- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization said Europe moved closer last year to meeting a defense-spending target championed by the U.S., a trend that could ease transatlantic tensions as the world battles the coronavirus pandemic.

The military budgets of NATO’s European member countries and Canada increased to 1.57% of gross domestic product on average in 2019 from 1.52% in 2018, the alliance said in an annual report released on Thursday in Brussels.

With Canada’s outlays unchanged at 1.31% of GDP, European nations led by Germany produced the boost toward the 2% goal for NATO nations as a whole. German defense expenditure expanded to 1.38% of GDP last year from 1.24%, according to the alliance.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg presented the annual report in a virtual press conference for the first time as a result of the health scare caused by the deadly coronavirus outbreak in more than 100 countries.

With the U.S. accounting for around 70% of defense expenditure by NATO’s 29 nations, U.S. President Donald Trump has vocally -- and sometimes angrily -- pressed Europe to boost its share.

Transatlantic “burden-sharing” tensions were set aside in December at a London summit to celebrate the 70th anniversary of NATO’s founding. But they have marred previous talks among the alliance’s leaders and gotten entangled in trade disputes triggered by Trump’s “America First” agenda.

In 2014, NATO members pledged to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense by 2024. Eight European countries -- Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and the U.K. -- achieved the target last year, according to the alliance.

The military budgets of NATO nations as a whole increased to 2.52% of GDP in 2019 from 2.42%, according to the alliance. U.S. defense outlays last year amounted to 3.42% of GDP, up from 3.3%, NATO said.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.