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Trump's ultimatum on defense spending will give NATO pause
Next month he will push for raising the NATO target to 5%, although forecasts suggest he could settle for 3.5%.
Donald Trump threatened decades of multilateral consensus at the alliance's 2018 summit by sharply condemning members who failed to meet defense spending targets, calling them “delinquents” and threatening to pull the US out of its key role. This position of the US President-elect will make the Alliance think, writes The Times.
Trump has particularly criticized Germany, Europe's largest economy, for spending significantly less than 2% of GDP on defense while simultaneously purchasing large volumes of Russian gas. Saving the summit required diplomatic efforts led by then-Dutch Prime Minister Mark…
