{"id":30081,"date":"2020-10-22T20:47:45","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T20:47:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/10\/22\/us-nato-allies-still-short-on-defense-spending-targets\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:48:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:48:50","slug":"us-nato-allies-still-short-on-defense-spending-targets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/10\/22\/us-nato-allies-still-short-on-defense-spending-targets\/","title":{"rendered":"US NATO allies still short on defense spending targets"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BRUSSELS \u2014 U.S. allies in Europe and Canada have increased defense spending for a sixth consecutive year but most of them will still fail to achieve a NATO spending ambition by the target date of 2024, according to new figures being discussed by defense ministers on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NATO countries slashed their military budgets in the 1990s after the Cold War, but they were spurred back into action when Russia annexed Ukraine\u2019s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. That year, the allies pledged to halt the cuts and move toward spending 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the new data, France and Norway are forecast to join eight other countries spending at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense this year. Those others are Britain, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and the United States \u2014 which has a bigger budget than all 29 of its allies combined.<\/p>\n\n\n\t