NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will visit Slovakia on Thursday. He will negotiate with President Peter Pellegrini and Prime Minister Robert Fico on the topic of increasing defense spending. Pellegrini confirmed this on Saturday to the media during the Munich Security Conference, informs the special newsletter TASR.
Allies in the North Atlantic Alliance agreed in 2014 that Two percent of its GDP will earn a defense every year. However, the new US President Donald Trump is now urging the Member States to contribute up to five percent of GDP.
Rutte in an interview with Politico magazine on the margins of the Munich Security Conference said that Member States will have to increase defense spending significantly more than three percent of GDP. According to him, he will be discussed at the June NATO summit in Hague.
“It is important that there will be a discussion with Member States, where the threshold of increased expenses should go, at what pace and in what timeframe,” said Pellegrini. On the other hand, he stressed that there is no need to focus only on “percentage”, but also on the needs of each Member State and their armies. It will also be important to explain to the people why expenses should be increased. He wants to talk to NATO’s boss Ruttem on Thursday.
“If we have (within the Alliance) some agreement to gradually increase defense expenditure to more than two percent of GDP, it will probably have to change fiscal rules So that the contributions exceeding this amount is granted an exemption, even to the possible exceeding the amount of debt – so that they are not penalized for growing this long, “Pellegrini added.
