As President Joe Biden prepares for this weekend’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) summit, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is asking the president to hold NATO accountable.
Johnson joined 34 Republican colleagues in sending Biden a letter asking that he remind NATO allies to honor their commitment to spend at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.
“The lack of sufficient progress is politically and economically unsustainable,” the senators wrote. “American citizens rightly question why our government disproportionately bears the burden – decade after decade – for Europe’s defense. In Vilnius, we respectfully request that you make this issue a priority,”
Vilnius, Lithuania is hosting the NATO confab.
The letter’s signers include presidential candidate U.S. Senator Tim Scott (R-SC).
In August, the U.S. Senate approved the ascensions of Finland and Sweden to NATO. In an amendment to that resolution, the Senate unanimously approved a line stating that all NATO members should spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense.
Failure of many U.S. allies to meet their financial commitments has the potential to “undermine American support for the alliance,” the senators wrote. It also “severely limits Europe’s ability to contribute to our shared interest in defending against Russia, and is a long-term source of instability in Europe, not to mention frustration for American taxpayers.”
The U.S. is spending about 3.1 percent of its GDP on defense, accounting for nearly 40 percent of military expenditures by countries around the world in 2022, according to recently released figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Annual U.S. defense spending tops $875 billion, more than the next 10 countries — including China and Russia — combined.
The senators said they are not asking for NATO allies to do anything they have not already pledged to do. In 2014 at the NATO summit in Wales, NATO member nations committed to maintain or move toward meeting the 2 percent defense guideline within a decade.
Through last year, according to NATO, only seven of the 31 member countries have, including the United States. Only the United Kingdom in the seven are considered major economies.
“That means that despite increased spending by some, the U.S., which accounts for a little more than half of the combined alliance GDP, ultimately pay 70% of NATO’s combined defense expenditures,” the senator’s letter states.
The lawmakers want Biden to prioritize the following agenda items:
- NATO members prioritize defense spending and meet their 2 percent of GDP pledges at minimum.
- NATO members adopt the goal of increasing defense spending an additional 1 percent.
They pointed out that the failure of so many members to meet their defense spending commitments risks undermining American public support for the alliance.
“That disparities in NATO member defense spending have persisted for so long is incompatible with genuine partnership,” the letter states.
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
