Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has taken a bow for years for getting more NATO countries to pay their required 2% of GDP, but he is upping the ante to 3% now, and a NATO official agreed the amount is justified.
"Yes, I think they can," Angus Lapsley, NATO assistant secretary general for defense policy and planning, told Defense One.
"Given the threat scenarios that we face today for most European allies, spending will have to rise considerably above the 2% floor if they're going to deliver the increases in capability and the better, usable, sustainable capability that we're asking ... now."
Democrats have attempted to attack Trump for saying he had refused to defend European countries delinquent or short of their 2% of GDP defense payments, but since then Russia has invaded Ukraine causing, many European countries to have to pay up in fear of Russian aggression.
This year was the first time a majority of NATO countries have met the 2% requirement, according to NATO funding data.
The countries closest to Ukraine, Poland and Estonia, have paid out the highest percentage of their GDPs at 4.1% and 3.4%, while Portugal (1.6%) and Spain (1.3%) are the leading laggards, according to Defense One.
"We go up to 3.7 in couple of years," Estonia Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur vowed to Defense One. "I've said ... 2% is not enough. It should be 2.5 or 3% even."
Portugal is hoping it can reach the requirement by 2029, according to Portugal Defense Ministry Secretary Ana Isabel Xavier.
"It's a fact that Portugal, in this moment, has not reached yet 2% of the GDP; we are trying to do it in 2029," Xavier told Defense One. "But I think that all the discussions that we had are very clear on one thing: It's not only what do you actually spend, but how do you spend it."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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