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NATO chief urges EU to increase military budgets for US-EU alliance

NATO chief urges EU to increase military budgets for US-EU alliance

Posted November. 25, 2016 07:17,   

Updated November. 25, 2016 07:25

한국어

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has urged EU members to increase military spending. NATO chief’s comments came after Trump’s slamming of NATO during his campaign, saying that the U.S. may refuse to come to the aid of NATO allies unless they “pay their bills” along with South Korea and Japan. The U.S. president-elect also said that he would ask South Korea and Japan to increase their share of defense budget for U.S. troops stationed in the two nations. Experts observed that NATO lost the game with Trump in advance.

Following the talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday, the NATO secretary general told reporters that increasing the military budget will make the U.S. to continue to devote to NATO and more spending in Europe is important for the transatlantic bond, for fair burden sharing between Europe and the U.S.

In North Atlantic Council Meeting held in Turkey on Monday, the NATO secretary general also said that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump pointed out the importance of increasing military budget of EU members but he confirmed a strong support of Mr. Trump for the security of NATO and Europe as well. He added that he expects to cooperate with the Trump administration. Currently, only four countries including the U.K., Poland, Estonia, and Greece meet the spending target of military expenditure at 2 percent of GDP that is requested by the U.S.

In the meantime, the Obama administration plans to give briefings to Mr. Trump and national security advisor nominee Michael Flynn on the threat of North Korea’s nuclear missiles and sanctions on the North soon. In the regular press briefing on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said that the new national security team under the Trump administration will clearly understand the Obama administration’s North Korea policy, adding that the current administration will explain its military measures, efforts to further impose restrictions on the North, financial sanctions of the Department of the Treasury, and assessment on North Korea’s nuclear capability by the intelligence agencies in detail.



Seung-Heon Lee ddr@donga.com