President Donald Trump is asking members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to increase NATO's contribution to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
Trump made the request to his NATO allies on Thursday while speaking virtually before Klaus Schwab's globalist World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
“I'm also going to ask all NATO countries to increase their defense spending to 5% of GDP. “It was only 2%, so most countries didn't pay until I came.”
“I insisted that they pay, and they did because at that time the United States was really paying the difference,” Trump said. “And it was unfair to the United States, but many, many things have been unfair to the United States for many years.”
Earlier this month, Trump told reporters he wanted to increase that number to 5%, as noted by AFP.
“Europe wants a fraction of the money we have,” Trump said. “There is something called an ocean between us, right? Why do we have billions of dollars more money than Europe?”
In June 2017, former NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg announced that NATO would contribute 2% of GDP, as agreed in 2014, after Trump called on other countries to pay their fair share. announced that it would request its members to do the same. At the time, the report found that only six of the 28 counties contributed more than 2 percent of GDP.
Some European leaders called for Trump's 5% rate earlier this month, but they are reportedly open to increased defense spending.
The defense ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the United Kingdom said last week that “they want to continue increasing investment in defence, but meeting President Donald Trump's agenda means they will lose 5% of their economic output.” The Associated Press reported.
