When NATO leaders met final week in The Hague, they strategically devoted their consideration to obsequiously pleasing U.S. President Donald Trump. When the 24-hour summit concluded with an settlement among the many allies to sharply increase their protection spending, as Trump has demanded for years, the result was nearly universally attributed to Trump.
In actuality, nevertheless, the person who deserves many of the credit score is Russian President Vladimir Putin. Greater than Trump, it was Russia’s habits that persuaded Europeans to sharply speed up their protection spending spree.
There’s no denying that in his first time period Trump insistently pressed the allies to spice up their protection spending to the two p.c of GDP goal they’d dedicated to again in 2014. Extra not too long ago he started arguing that 5 p.c of GDP was a extra applicable determine. Final week they agreed to extend navy spending to three.5 p.c of GDP by 2035, with an extra 1.5 p.c for “military-adjacent” initiatives, like infrastructure and analysis.
