Skip to main content

PENTAGON TO NATO: ‘WE WANT EVERYONE TO PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE’



The Pentagon believes that members of the alliance should “pay their fair share.”


US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (Photo: The Daily Signal / Steven Purcell)

On Friday, ahead a meeting of the US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis with defense ministers of NATO states, spokesman for the Pentagon, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, said that members of the alliance should “pay their fair share.”


“We have had a long-standing policy in our government: we want everyone to pay their fair share when it comes to defense,” Davis told reporters at an off-camera briefing.

The statement was made just ahead of the meeting between the US Defense Secretary and defense ministers of other members of the alliance, which will be held in Brussels, Belgium, next week.

According to a membership requirement, each member of NATO should spend at least two percent of their gross domestic product on their military budget. However, only five nations, including the US, fulfill this condition.

During his campaign trail, US President Donald Trump repeatedly stressed that NATO countries must perform that condition, as well as called the alliance “obsolete,” as it was not doing enough to fight against terrorism.

As the Pentagon spokesman noted, these two topics would be on the agenda at the meeting next week.


“We have always said we expect the benchmark that we want people to reach is two percent of their GDP – gross domestic product,” Davis said. “And we do that, and a couple of our other friends do it, but some don’t. And the issue becomes one of we want to make sure that they are fulfilling their obligations financially…by what they’re spending on their military.”

The US Defense Secretary already had telephone conversations with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and his Canadian and British counterparts, as well as held a meeting with German Defense Minister Ursula Von de Leyen on Friday.


“The two hit it off very well,” Davis said. “They discussed the importance of the alliance between the U.S. and Germany, both bilaterally and as members of NATO,” the Pentagon spokesman noted.

According to Davis, Mattis thanked Von de Leyen for Germany’s leadership in NATO activities and admitted the role of her country in combating terrorism, especially in the frameworks of the military coalition, fighting against the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.


“Both look forward to working together at the NATO defense ministerial and Munich Security Conference next week,” Davis concluded.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, specif