NATO chief Mark Rutte on Wednesday credited President Donald Trump with forcing European governments to lift their defence spending and rely less on U.S. taxpayer dollars for their survival.
Rutte told an audience at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Trump has laid down the architecture for their mutual military survival and that should be acknowledged.
“Without Donald Trump, this would never have happened,” Rutte said, pointing to the drive from Trump to rectify poor European spending.
“He has forced us in Europe to step up, to face the consequences that we have to take care more of our own defence.”
As Breitbart News reported, just last April allied foreign ministers were told to increase their defense spending to five percent of their gross domestic products (GDP) – a very substantial rise for most members of NATO.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a gathering in Brussels, Belgium, the time had come for action.
“We do want to leave here with an understanding that we are on a pathway, a realistic pathway, to every single one of the members committing and fulfilling a promise to reach up to five per cent of spending,” Rubio said.
“No one expects that you’re going to be able to do this in one year or two. But the pathway has to be real,” he said.
Only seven of the 30 members of the NATO military alliance even met the minimum two per cent of GDP military spending minimum of the alliance as recently as 2022 according to official figures.
Trump’s call since then quickly met with a positive response.
Trump himself Trump hailed a “historic… monumental win” for the United States, Europe, and “Western civilisation” as the NATO alliance agreed to his demand to equalise the burden of common defence with a five per cent of GDP floor on military spending for its members, as Breitbart News reported.
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