It is noted that the largest increase in spending was recorded in the United States – it is 3.9 percent.
According to DW, citing the report of the Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg, despite a strong reduction in tax revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic, NATO states allocated almost $1.1 trillion for military needs last year. This is 2.7 percent more than a year earlier.
“It is noted that the largest increase in spending was recorded in the United States – 3.9 percent. The country has been trying for a long time to achieve a more balanced distribution of defense spending among NATO member countries. In 2020, the United States allocated about $785 billion for military needs. This is almost 2.4 times more than all the other 29 partner countries combined, and the highest share of GDP (3.7 percent)”, – Channel 112 Ukraine reports.
The United States wants its NATO partners to start spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense as soon as possible. Last year, only ten states of the alliance achieved this goal – Slovakia, Greece, Great Britain, Romania, Poland, France, Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Germany is far from fulfilling the requirements of the USA. In 2020, the country allocated 51.6 billion euros for defense – 1.56 percent of its GDP. Experts, however, note that Berlin also managed to achieve this goal only thanks to the economic collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic: before the crisis, it was predicted that in 2020 Germany’s defense spending would amount to only 1.42 percent of GDP.