US President Donald Trump has cast doubt on his willingness to defend Washington’s Nato allies, saying that he would not do so if they are not paying enough for their own defense.
“It’s common sense, right,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them.”
Trump said he had been of this view for years and shared it with Nato allies during his 2017-2021 presidential term. Those efforts prompted more spending from other members of the 75-year-old transatlantic alliance, he said, but that “even now, it’s not enough.”
He added: “They should be paying more.”
So you want countries to bankrupt themselves? A small country just isn’t capable of buying or building 200 tanks unless you want them welding sheet metal to tractors and calling it a tank.
GDP percentage may not be perfect but it seems pretty reasonable that 5M people shouldn’t have to contribute as much between them as 300M people.
No. Common sense should be used. At this point European countries’ armies are below any level of usability.
Just look at Germany, for example. It is a big country. Big in territory, in populace and economics. With less of 100K of actual soldiers and tanks they count in dozens.
I expect countries to spend a reasonable amount of resources to raise an adequate army according to their abilities.
So a percentage of their GDP?
Do you expect me to say some concrete number like 2.78%? I can’t.
But this number should be sufficient to equip a fight-ready army. European armies are pathetic except for Turkey, France, Poland and… that’s it. No, 200 tanks aren’t enough. 50k infantry isn’t an army. Russians lose that amount in a month.
I can’t give you an easy trump-tier answer. But European armies should become mature. Maybe GDP percentage is just a bad measurement tool.