US continues to outspend Europe on defence in NATO annual report
Mar 22, 2023
Brussels [Belgium], March 22: NATO's 30 members spent an estimated $1.2 trillion on defence in 2022, a 2.2% increase in real terms compared to the previous year - but the United States is still picking up the bulk of the tab, according to an alliance report released on Tuesday. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg made the figures public with the release of NATO's annual report, which showed that the US is footing 70 percent of NATO's defence spending. "In a more dangerous world, allies increasingly see 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) spent on defence as a floor and not a ceiling," Stoltenberg said in his foreword to the NATO annual report. Figures from NATO's report showed that the 30% share not paid for by the US came from Canada and the remaining 28 European members.This comes despite US pressure to boost spending and the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.