The modest increases were unlikely to assuage President Trump’s grievance that Europe and Canada are not doing enough in their own defense. The U.S. military continued to be the juggernaut of the alliance, comprising 69 percent of overall defense spending even though the U.S. economy forms less than half of the club’s economic might. President Barack Obama also criticized allies for low defense spending, although not with the same edge as his successor. But for all the focus on the bottom line, the overall non-U.S. defense spending among NATO allies has increased since 2014 only by $14.6 billion a year, or about 5 percent. Although it increased its defense spending by 3.6 percent in 2018 compared with the previous year, its economy grew at the same time, so its overall spending remained stuck at 1.23 percent of annual economic output.

Source: Washington Post March 14, 2019 11:26 UTC