Older article but captures a snapshot of the issue...
THIS week the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) held its first meeting of defence ministers since Donald Trump became America′s president. Many of the group′s 28 members grew nervous after Mr Trump called it “obsolete” during his campaign, and suggested that the United States would only provide military aid to a threatened member if it had paid its fair share. The president has tamped down such rhetoric of late. Nonetheless, on February 15th America’s defence secretary, James Mattis, warned allies that they must adopt plans to raise their military spending or risk seeing its most powerful member “moderate its commitment to the alliance”.
The United States has a point in noting that its commitment is disproportionately large. Last year it spent 3.6% of its GDP on defence, the highest ratio of any NATO member (and the highest total military budget in the world by a hefty margin). That is almost double the target of 2% of GDP that NATO members all agreed to in 2006. At the time six members reached the threshold; last year five did.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/02/16/military-spending-by-nato-members
THIS week the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) held its first meeting of defence ministers since Donald Trump became America′s president. Many of the group′s 28 members grew nervous after Mr Trump called it “obsolete” during his campaign, and suggested that the United States would only provide military aid to a threatened member if it had paid its fair share. The president has tamped down such rhetoric of late. Nonetheless, on February 15th America’s defence secretary, James Mattis, warned allies that they must adopt plans to raise their military spending or risk seeing its most powerful member “moderate its commitment to the alliance”.
The United States has a point in noting that its commitment is disproportionately large. Last year it spent 3.6% of its GDP on defence, the highest ratio of any NATO member (and the highest total military budget in the world by a hefty margin). That is almost double the target of 2% of GDP that NATO members all agreed to in 2006. At the time six members reached the threshold; last year five did.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/02/16/military-spending-by-nato-members