by Ellen Mitchell at The Hill
NATO leaders on Wednesday agreed to a major defense spending increase while leaving room for some alliance countries, including Spain, Belgium and Slovakia, to not hit the new spending goals thanks to very particular wording.
“Allies commit to invest 5% of GDP annually on core defense requirements as well as defense-and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations,” the 32 leaders of the alliance said in a statement that pointedly did not specify “all allies” had committed to doing so.
President Trump since his first term has pressured NATO countries to commit more of their annual GDP to military spending as the United States looks to shift its attention from security priorities in Europe to the Indo-Pacific and Middle East.
NATO’s biggest-spending member, Washington since early this year has insisted alliance countries must up their defense dollars from the 2 percent goal set in 2014 to the ambitious 5 percent. But the goal seemed to be a stretch given that nine of the 32 NATO member countries have yet to reach the earlier 2 percent goal.
With vague diplomatic language, however,…
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