Countries Set to Raise Defense Spending This Year

On 28 June, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that European allies of NATO and Canada will increase their defense spending by 4.3 percent in 2017, effectively marking a cumulative US $46 billion increase since cuts stopped in 2014.

Speaking a day before NATO defense ministers are due to meet in Brussels to discuss greater security expenditure, which US President Donald Trump is pushing for, Stoltenberg disclosed, “to keep our nations safe, we need to keep working to increase defense spending and fairer burden-sharing across our alliance.” Speaking at a news conference, he stated, “after years of decline, in 2015 we saw a real increase in defense spending across European allies and Canada…this year, we foresee an even greater real increase of 4.3 percent.”