U.S. Defense Secretary Mattis to press European allies on military spending
2018-02-14 10:07:08 source：The Star
February 14, 2018
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -- U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis will press European allies on Wednesday to stick to a promise to increase military budgets as the United States offers an increase in its own defence spending in Europe.
For the first time, NATO countries have submitted plans to show how they will reach a target to spend 2 percent of economic output on defence every year by 2024, after Trump threatened to withdraw U.S. support for low-spending allies.
Fifteen of the 28 countries, excluding the United States, now have a strategy to meet a NATO benchmark first agreed in 2014 in response to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, following years of cuts to European defence budgets.
Read more: