<p>An attack against one NATO member is considered an attack against all. For this reason, NATO guidelines encourage all member nations to maintain a ready military by spending 2% of their annual GDP on defense. There is no penalty for failing to meet this goal.  ;</p>
<p>NATO describes the 2% target ;as &ldquo;an indicator of a country&rsquo;s political will to contribute&rdquo; to allied defense efforts. Meeting the goal sends a clear message to the world that NATO is a credible alliance.</p>
<p>Only five members currently spent 2% or more on defense. Some nations, like Spain and Belgium, don&#8217;t even spend 1%. ;</p>
<p>In 2014, several NATO members agreed to meet the 2% target ;by 2024. Last year was a ;huge step towards that goal, with 23 of NATO&rsquo;s 28 members increasing defense spending. ;</p>
<p>The United States met and exceeded the target by spending 3.36% of its GDP on defense in 2016. France and Turkey, with 1.79% and 1.69% respectively, almost made the cut. <strong>Germany spent 1.2%. ;</strong></p>
<p>&ldquo;Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO &; the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!&rdquo; President Trump tweeted last weekend after an uncomfortable meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. ;</p>
<p>In February, US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis warned that the US might &ldquo;moderate its commitment&rdquo; to the alliance if European members don&rsquo;t start pulling their weight.</p>
<p><a href="https://punchingbagpost.com/germany-raises-nato-spending-in-response-to-trump-pressure/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>As I wrote in a previous article</strong></a>, Germany has plans to meet the 2% rule by 2024. Chancellor Angela Merkel does not intend to speed up this plan.</p>
<p>&ldquo;NATO does not have a debt account,&rdquo; argues German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, adding that Berlin&rsquo;s 2018 budget includes a 3.9% increase in defense spending.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Germany has a strong economy. None of our partners would understand it if we didn&rsquo;t manage to do our part while poorer countries have to tighten their belts to meet the target.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Von der Leyen doesn&#8217;t believe the ;2% goal is an accurate representation of a member&#8217;s actual contributions, and suggests NATO ;change the way commitments are assessed.</p>
<p>&ldquo;For me, the question is who is really providing added value to the alliance,&rdquo; she says, calling to establish an &ldquo;activity index&rdquo; that would consider members&rsquo; participation in foreign missions when assessing budget goals. ;</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>The United States currently pays for &ldquo;more than one-fifth of the direct, collective funding that keeps NATO&rsquo;s military and civilian operations on track,&rdquo; reports <em>CNS News. ;</em>This is just over 22% of the NATO budget. ;</p>
<p>Germany makes up for 14.6% of that budget; France contributes 10.6%; and Britain pay for 9.8%. ;</p>
<p>The following thirteen allies each contribute less than 1% of the budget: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech, Estonia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, and Slovenia.</p>