This recovery, he says, must be accompanied by increased national defense spending by NATO members, many of whom still have less than the alliance’s minimum spending threshold of 2 percent as a percentage of their GDP. In the United Kingdom, where Chancellor Rishi Sunak is facing pressure to increase military spending above the current level of about 2.2%, an increase would also be welcome, Stoltenberg said. “The 2 per cent guideline is a minimum guideline and of course I welcome any increase in defense spending from all the allies – also, of course, those allies who are already spending more than 2 per cent, like the United Kingdom. “But of course my main focus is to make sure that those below 2 percent meet this minimum guideline.” Speaking at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Stoltenberg singled out German Chancellor Olaf Solz for his commitment to a sharp increase in Berlin’s defense spending, from about 1.5 percent of GDP to more than 2 percent. a hundred. “Given the size of the German economy, that really makes a huge difference to NATO’s total defense spending,” he said. Mr Stoltenberg also praised the UK’s role in helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia. In the years before the invasion, he says, tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops benefited from training and equipment provided by the United Kingdom and other NATO allies, making the country’s armed forces “much larger, much better equipped, much better trained and much more better led now than ever. “Even after the invasion, the allies have intensified and the United Kingdom is playing a key role, both in providing training for many years and in strengthening their efforts to provide more support now.”
