NATO heightens defense readiness over Russia, Trump fears

Shafaq News/ On Sunday, the European member states of NATO have heightened their preparedness to unprecedented levels in response to the Russian threat and the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House, AFP reported.

The possible victory of Trump in the US presidential elections next November, who previously described NATO as an “obsolete” organization, raises concern in Brussels and many European capitals.

Trump regularly attacks “underpayers” in Europe, suggesting that they will no longer benefit from US protection if they do not pay their bills.

He is not the first US president to condemn the Europeans' “lack of commitment” to ensuring their self-defense. But he was "very frank and very direct in his criticism of allies," as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with Agence France-Presse last week.

Responding to these criticisms, NATO set in 2014 a goal for the bloc to allocate at least 2% of its gross internal product to military expenditures. A decade ago, only three countries met this threshold; today, 23 out of 32 do.

"We are now better positioned to demonstrate that the United States no longer shoulders the burden of expenditures alone," Stoltenberg said.

"Even in countries historically reluctant to spend more on defense, there is now a growing sense of the importance of greatly increased defense spending," said Ian Lesser, from the German Marshall Fund of the United States think tank.

"I think, broadly speaking, in the next years we're looking at levels of defense spending that will begin to approach those of the Cold War," he added.

This is the desire of the Baltic states and Poland, which is traditionally very skeptical of Russia.

"In 1988 all of the allies were spending more than two percent, actually some even six percent on defense because the threat was real, there was a Cold War going on," Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said last week during a visit to NATO headquarters.

"Now we have a hot war in Europe and we are not spending enough," said Kallas, who was nominated last month as the European Union's next foreign policy chief.

The increase in spending, which includes European heavyweights Germany and France, will be heavily showcased in Washington as NATO stages its show of unity.

That is designed to send a message to Russia's President Vladimir Putin as he wages his war in Ukraine and menaces NATO from the east.

But it is also a message for former US leader Donald Trump as he seeks to reclaim the Oval Office from incumbent Joe Biden at elections in November.

NATO funds the bulk of Ukraine's war effort against Russia, at about 40 billion euros annually, but it must also finance its own preparations for a possible conflict with Moscow.

During last year's Vilnius summit, NATO adopted new defense plans to take into account this Russian threat, which escalated with the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A senior NATO military official acknowledged a few weeks ago that “a lot of capabilities are on the table and the bill is high.” In this context, the allies seek to strengthen their defense industry, and the Washington summit will reaffirm this commitment, according to a NATO diplomat.

Another NATO diplomat said that such a war effort would require tens or even hundreds of billions of euros.

After years of defense budget cuts, it has become increasingly difficult for countries to reduce social or education spending to fund more weapons production or purchases.

A diplomat in Brussels confirmed, "This is the direction we are heading in to implement the new (defense) plans, it is clear that 2% (of GDP) will not be enough."

Trump's potential return to the White House will inevitably accelerate the process. In this regard, the diplomat added, " I think we're going to move to something beyond that, regardless of who wins the next US elections, but if Trump wins it could come sooner."