https://www.rt.com/information/615917-trump-italy-meloni-nato-defense-spending/Trump chides Italy’s Meloni over army spending

Rome must spend extra on its army as a result of NATO’s 2% goal is not sufficient, US President Donald Trump has instructed Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

Whereas the US is the largest monetary contributor to the alliance, Trump has lengthy insisted that European member states should increase their very own protection. The controversy over burden-sharing between the allies additional complicates the Trump administration’s strained relations with Europe.

Throughout a joint press convention in Washington on Thursday, Meloni said that “Italy goes to the following summit of NATO, asserting that it’ll elevate [defense spending] to 2%, and that’s additionally progressed.”

“It is going to go up,” Trump interjected. When requested by a reporter if the two% goal was ample, the US president replied, “It’s by no means sufficient.”

Final 12 months, Italy’s protection finances stood at 1.49% of GDP – one of many lowest in NATO. Meloni has been advocating for a while to reclassify expenditure on border patrols and coast guards as army spending.

In January, Trump accused European international locations of benefiting from the US and argued that NATO members ought to spend at the very least 5% of their GDP on protection. Final 12 months, twenty-three of the 32 members hit the two% goal set by NATO in 2014, in response to the bloc’s personal estimate cited by the BBC. The US spends round 3.5% of its GDP on protection and is NATO’s largest general contributor.

Italian Protection Minister Guido Crosetto instructed the newspaper La Stampa this week that it was “unthinkable” to imagine that every one European nations would slash social applications to meet Trump’s 5% demand. “European international locations can’t contact welfare and social achievements,” he mentioned.

Final week, Trump mentioned he wouldn’t rule out pulling some or the entire 84,000 US troops at the moment stationed in Europe. “We pay for the army in Europe. We don’t get reimbursed by a lot,” Trump instructed reporters on the White Home.

The New York Instances reported on Monday that the US might slash “virtually all funding” for worldwide organizations, together with the United Nations and NATO.