June 18, 2024, 10:41 am
Aggression towards Ukraine has increased the risk of conflict spreading in Europe. Against this backdrop, more than 20 NATO countries are meeting the alliance’s defense spending targets. This was announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during his stay at the Wilson Center before the meeting with US President Joe Biden.
Great to be back in the 🇺🇸 and meet@POTUSto prepare our#NATOSummitin July, where we will strengthen support to#Ukraine. Today we published new numbers on defense spending, showing that 23#NATOAllies now spend 2% of GDP on defense.pic.twitter.com/h0HBAKd6f1
— Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg)June 17, 2024
According to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the military presence of the United States in Europe is of the utmost importance for the security of the European continent.
However, according to him, the Europeans are also doing much more for collective security than in previous years, they are leading battle groups in the eastern part of the alliance.
Jens Stoltenberg adds that they have increased the level of readiness of their forces and strengthened NATO by joining the military forces of Finland and Sweden.
Last year, NATO member states agreed to spend two percent of their gross domestic product on defense.
The estimated figure is almost four times more than the expenditure that the 32 NATO member countries had in 2021 to ensure defense.
Newsessentials Blog 
Posted on June 19, 2024
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