NATO countries will increase their overall military budget by $3 billion

© Photo from nato.int

NATO member countries in 2015 “increased their military budgets for the first time by 0.6%.” Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance, announced this today.

According to him, in 2016 the growth of the alliance’s military spending will be 1.5% or $3 billion. “Today I have good news. From the end cold war NATO countries increased their military budgets for the first time in 2015 by 0.6%. In 2016, this figure will rise to 1.5%, which roughly corresponds to $3 billion,” he said ahead of a meeting of the Organization’s defense chiefs on June 14-15 in Brussels. “We are finally starting to move in the right direction,” says Stoltenberg.

“The overall picture is mixed. Some allies spend more, some less. The US spends more than 3% of GDP on defense; Great Britain, Estonia, Poland spend more than 2%. However, there are countries that spend less than 2%. I expect that all NATO countries will implement the decision of the NATO summit in Wales (September 2014), stop reducing military spending and bring their level to 2% of GDP,” TASS quotes the Secretary General.

“2% is a fair percentage that will allow for a fair distribution of defense spending,” he believes.

NATO regularly claims that the increase in its military spending is associated with an increase in similar indicators in the Russian Federation, but the alliance does not mention that the Organization’s total military spending today exceeds Russia’s military budget by about 10 times.

The total defense spending of 28 NATO countries in 2016 amounted to $892 billion (in 2010 prices). This is stated in the published annual security report by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

“The US share in the NATO budget in 2016 was 45.9%, European countries and Canada - 54.1%. The growth in defense spending of European states this year for the first time in history amounted to 3.8%,” the document says.

The document states that in 2016, NATO conducted 107 of its exercises and took part in 139 national maneuvers.

The Secretary General stressed that NATO remains committed to developing political dialogue with Russia to reduce the risk of increased military tension.

“NATO remains committed to developing dialogue with Russia, which is necessary to reduce the risks of incidents, casualties and tensions. In 2016, we held three meetings of the Russia-NATO Council (at the ambassadorial level - TASS note) to discuss the situation in Ukraine, military transparency measures in Europe and the situation in Afghanistan,” he said.

The Russian Federation is NATO's neighbor, the alliance must build constructive relations with it, says NATO Secretary General.

In the report, the alliance named among the main threats to its security the activities of the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS, banned in Russia - ed.) and “increasingly active activities of Russia,” which, according to NATO, “undermines the sovereignty of other states.”

“IS is a terrorist organization that is under increasing pressure today. Russia is our neighbor and will always remain a neighbor, so the alliance must strive to build constructive relations with it,” he said.

“We are pleased with Germany's decision to meet NATO's level of support by spending 2% of GDP on defense by 2024,” a US administration official said, noting that Germany intends to return to the level of defense spending required by NATO's charter.

In 2009, NATO's military spending was $1,100 billion.

According to the annual report of the Stockholm international institute Legal Issues Research Institute (SIPRI), in 2016, the total military budget of all countries in the world decreased by 0.4% and amounted to $1,776 billion or 2.4% of global GDP.

This reduction was achieved by cutting US military spending by 6.5%.

The United States accounts for about a third of the global defense budget—$610 billion. In second place is China's defense budget ($216 billion), with an increase of 9.7%.

Russia's military budget, according to SIPRI, ranks third in the world. In 2016, military spending increased by 8.1% to $84.5 billion.

According to official data, the Russian federal budget for 2016 allocated 3.1 trillion rubles for defense. (about $47 billion, or 4% of GDP).

In 2014, NATO established the minimum military spending standard for alliance members - 2% of GDP. Not long ago, US presidential candidate Donald Trump said that he would carefully study how countries follow the decision taken, before protecting them from any aggressor. So who honestly fulfills their obligations?

Let's look at the tables presented on the American website Defense One, which is dedicated to military review.

The list of countries that have reached the 2% mark, apparently, in 2016 will be the same as in 2015 - USA, UK, Greece, Estonia, Poland.

The map shows that all Baltic NATO members reach 1.5% of GDP in defense spending.

Another table shows the percentage of military expenditures of NATO members in relation to GDP for 1980-2000. .

Percentage of military expenditures of NATO members in relation to GDP 2008-2015 (forecast) year. .

The dynamics show that Europe, after the end of the Cold War, generally reduced military spending. After the deterioration of relations with Russia, the Americans began to scare with horror stories about the imminent advance of Russian troops, which would reach the English Channel in a few days, and to say that Europe should raise military spending back, as the Baltic countries do. The Americans continue to stick to their line, although many European countries are not eager to increase their military budget.

The same news is coming from Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is confident that the country is capable of repelling any invader. Photo from the official website of the President of the Russian Federation

Military spending by countries around the world is constantly increasing. This year, their total volume has increased to $1.57 trillion, that is, compared to last year it has increased by almost 200 billion. This figure was given in the next annual report (Annual Defense Budgets Report) by specialists from the Anglo-American information and analytical company IHS Markit, which has included Jane's Information Group since 2008. Periodical reference books and news publications of this group are widely known throughout the world. They cover all areas of military development various countries and are considered the most authoritative among publications devoted to military topics, the data for which is collected from open sources. This report, which provides data on the military budgets of 105 countries, is usually released in December. It contains not only information about military spending by countries around the world in each current year, but also provides analytical estimates of defense spending and provides forecasts for their changes for the next five years.

WHY DO YOU WANT MONEY SO MUCH?

Currently, NATO leadership is in a state of panic, which has arisen in Brussels in connection with the election of Republican Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States.

During the election campaign, Trump repeatedly called NATO an obsolete organization and said that its members need to fulfill all their obligations to the alliance in the field of increasing defense budget requirements. After these statements by the presidential candidate, a significant part of overseas politicians and administrators, like their European colleagues, had the opinion that Trump would put his skepticism towards the bloc into practice.

Almost immediately after the election of the new US president, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg addressed Trump from the pages of the British Guardian newspaper. He said the security situation had "deteriorated dramatically" over the past few years due to an "assertive Russia" and instability in the Middle East and north Africa. Stoltenberg stressed that “the response to these challenges was the largest strengthening of collective defense since the Cold War, and the United States here reaffirmed its commitment to protecting European security by deploying a new armed brigade in the east of the continent.”

The Secretary General expressed his agreement that the level of strength of the Alliance is largely determined by the fair distribution of responsibilities among its members, primarily financial obligations. “Today, the United States accounts for almost 70% of the alliance's defense spending, and its calls for a fairer burden sharing are justified,” Stoltenberg declared.

Somewhat later, speaking at the representative office of the German Marshall Fund in Brussels, he said that in 2016 “military budgets European countries NATO and Canada will grow by 3%.” He also emphasized that not all members of the alliance are ready to invest 2% of their national GDP in ensuring collective security. “Nevertheless, we are still far from achieving our goal of the level of military spending of all alliance members of 2% of national GDP,” the secretary general said.

In the middle of this year, even before the start of the NATO summit in Warsaw, the NATO Secretary General announced that this year the alliance’s expenses would increase by $3 billion. As data presented in the IHS Markit Ltd. report show, the expenses of NATO countries actually increased in 2016. This document notes that for the first time in the last six years, NATO countries are forced to increase their military spending due to the United States' intention to reduce its defense spending, the worsening situation in Europe and NATO's expansion to the east. It notes that in the next five-year period, the military budgets of the European countries of the bloc will be increased by approximately $10 billion. The total budget of NATO countries in 2016 amounted to $219 billion, in 2020 its volume will reach 230.4 billion.

The military budgets of leading NATO countries have increased this year, but by relatively small amounts. The budget of the United States, the main curator of the bloc, increased by almost 7 billion and amounted to just over 622 billion. Military expenditures of the leading NATO countries Great Britain, Germany and France this year compared to last year practically did not change and amounted to 53.8, 35.75 and 44 .4 billion dollars respectively.

But the Baltic countries are skyrocketing with their military spending, although compared to other countries they are quite small. Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, the military budgets of the Baltic countries have doubled and, as the authors of the reports note, they will be doubled in the near future. In 2014, total expenses Baltic countries defense spending increased to $930 million. In 2016, their military spending is already $1.45 billion.

Some Russian experts argue that the build-up military power and defense spending in NATO countries is the basis for creating the infrastructure for a future arms race.

RUSSIA IS EUROPE'S FIRST ENEMY

Most of the bloc countries explain the need to increase their military spending primarily by the threat from Russia. Berlin and London accuse Moscow of aggressiveness and are building their own military policy based on this setting.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the European Union is currently “unable to protect itself from external threats and cannot rely solely on a transatlantic partnership with the United States. Germany, which currently spends about 1.2% of GDP on defense, and the United States, which spends 3.4%, should converge on this indicator,” Merkel said. The head of the German government added that “there is no good in the long run if we talk, hope and expect others to carry out our defense for us.” And the latest edition of the German White Paper, which assesses threats to national security, notes that Russia “is now not a partner, but a rival.” Berlin, based on events in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, is concerned that Russia is “ready to violently advance its interests.” According to the German government, without a fundamental change in Russia's foreign policy, in the foreseeable future it will “become a security threat to our continent.”

However, it should be noted that one of Angela Merkel’s main opponents, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, advocates maintaining Germany’s membership in NATO only on the condition that the bloc abandons its offensive actions against Russia and remains a purely defensive alliance. About this on December 12 this year. said AfD leader Frauke Petry.

“We spoke out in favor of continued membership in NATO only on the condition that the alliance returns to its defensive purpose, which, in our opinion, it long ago abandoned. NATO too often acts as an offensive alliance, particularly towards Russia,” Petri said in an interview with the Sputnik news agency. In her opinion, a historical excursion shows that Europe and Germany “lived well only in those times when we maintained reasonable relations with Russia.”

In the middle of this year, new British Prime Minister Theresa May, during her first speech in the British Parliament as head of government, said that the threat posed by countries such as Russia and North Korea, remains real.

But Paris has a completely different opinion. Upon his arrival in Warsaw at the beginning of June this year for the NATO summit, French President Francois Hollande said that “NATO does not pretend to influence the relations that Europe should maintain with Russia.” “For France, Russia is neither an adversary nor a threat,” Hollande said. And a little later he emphasized that France views Russia not in terms of rivalry, but in terms of partnership. Nevertheless, the president believes, using the example of Ukraine, it can be argued that Russia is capable of using military force.

In May of this year, the Department of Information and Press (DIP) of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commenting on the statements of the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Peter Pavel about “existing threats from the East,” said: “There is no doubt that in the context of NATO’s obvious inability to make a significant contribution to countering such real challenges of our time, such as terrorism, only the promotion of an anti-Russian campaign allows the alliance to seek from its member states an increase in military spending and at least somehow stay afloat. “Public statements about the need to mitigate risks for NATO member countries, which arise, in fact, as a result of the unprecedented build-up of the bloc’s military activity and infrastructure in the immediate vicinity of Russian borders, are the height of cynicism,” the Foreign Ministry’s DIP added.

MOSCOW LEFT OUT OF THE FIVE

As noted in the IHS Markit report, for the first time in the last three decades, Russia fell out of the top five states with the largest military budgets. In 2016, Russian defense spending decreased by 6.6% (in dollar terms). Russia's 2016 state budget included the first reduction in defense spending since the late 1990s, causing Russia to fall from the fourth to sixth largest military budget in the world. Russia was overtaken by India and Saudi Arabia.

According to IHS Jane's, Russia's defense budget in 2016 amounted to $48.45 billion. Last year, its volume was equal to 51.84 billion. The authors of the report indicate that in the foreseeable future, 2015 will most likely be the year in which the peak Russia's defense spending. IHS analysts, based on data from the draft federal budget for the next three years, state that Russia’s defense spending will continue to decline in 2017 and that the Kremlin’s official budget for the “National Defense” section next year will fall by 27% compared to 2016 – up to $42 billion

IHS also predicts that, with current plans, Russia will be behind France in terms of defense spending by 2020 and will drop to seventh place in the world.

During the 12th big press conference, held on December 23 last year at the World Trade Center on Krasnaya Presnya, Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering a question about the situation in the country’s economy, said that next year the budget “remains deficit” and that “you will have to save on a lot.” He emphasized that “the main item of budget savings will be in the National Defense section.”

“If in 2011 we spent 2.7% of GDP on the “National Defense” section, then this year and over the past five years we have greatly increased these expenses: in the last – outgoing – year it will already be 4.7. IN next year will be 3.3 and in 2019 – 2.8. We are entering the 2.8 niche and will maintain it for several years,” the president said and added that “this will not affect our plans to strengthen our defense capability,” since in the previous five years “quite a lot of funds were allocated to the defense sector "

The president also emphasized that today Russia is “stronger than any potential aggressor.” This, according to him, is determined by successes in the modernization of the Armed Forces, the history and geography of Russia and today's internal state Russian society.

BRUSSELS, June 29 - RIA Novosti, Vladimir Dobrovolsky. The combined defense budget of the 29 NATO member countries in 2017 will be almost $946 billion, with the United States spending $683.4 billion on defense needs, according to a NATO report on defense spending by NATO countries for 2010-2017.

On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that military spending by the alliance's member countries has been growing for the third year in a row, and in 2017, according to preliminary estimates, their growth will be 4.3%.

Defense spending by member countries in 2017 will amount to $945,962 million, up from $920,114 million in 2016, according to data provided by the alliance on Thursday. The youngest NATO member, Montenegro, invests the least in defense, which intends to spend $72 million on military needs in 2017. It is followed by Albania with a budget of $152 million and Luxembourg with $278 million for defense.

More than two-thirds of total defense spending comes from the United States budget, which will increase from $664,058 million in 2016 to $683,414 million in 2017. Second place is occupied by Great Britain, whose military budget in 2016 amounted to $56,964 million, and in 2017 it will decrease to $54,863 million. Third place is occupied by France, whose defense spending will increase from $44,191 million in 2016 to $44,333 million in 2017.

The pioneers in increasing defense spending are Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. If in 2010 their military budgets amounted to, respectively, 1.06%, 0.88% and 1.24% of their GDP, then in 2017 they should increase to 1.7%, 1.77% and 2.02 %. Thus, Romania in 2017 will be among the countries that have reached the level of 2% of GDP set by the alliance.

More than 2% of GDP is allocated to defense by the USA (3.58% in 2017), Great Britain (2.14% in 2017), Greece (2.32% in 2017), Poland (2.01% in 2017) and Estonia ( 2.14% in 2017). The least committed countries are Luxembourg (0.44% in 2017), Belgium (0.91% in 2017) and Spain (0.92% in 2017).

Back in 2014, at a summit in Wales, NATO countries pledged to strive to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP within 10 years, but the election of Donald Trump as US President gave special impetus to these efforts. Both during the campaign and after winning the election, Trump criticized NATO allies for not spending enough on defense. At his first ministerial meeting in February, US Defense Secretary James Mattis called on partners to increase defense funding if they did not want the United States' commitment to the alliance to become more modest. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made similar demands at a ministerial meeting at the end of March.

Following US demands and decisions made in Wales, the allies decided at a summit in Brussels in May 2017 to draw up annual national plans to increase defense contributions. In them, member countries will indicate how they intend to raise defense spending to 2% of GDP, invest in key capabilities and participate in NATO operations. The first series of reports on the implementation of these plans will be ready by December, and in February 2018 they will be studied by the defense ministers of the alliance member countries.