Most NATO members do not spend two percent on defense, including Croatia

(Patria) - Most of the 31 NATO member states do not allocate two percent of GDP for defense, including Croatia, and they have once again come under criticism and threats from former US President Donald Trump.

Politico writes that there is a clear trend in filling the defense budgets of NATO members - the closer a country is to Russia, the more it allocates for defense, Hina reports.

According to the magazine's estimates for 2023, Poland leads the list with four percent of GDP allocated for defense.

Warsaw allocated $29 billion for this last year, which is $12 billion more than the previous year and triple the amount from the last decade, the Washington Post writes.

Poland is followed by the USA with 3.5 percent of GDP, but in terms of total amounts, Washington allocates more than all other NATO members combined - $860 billion.

So far, 11 countries have met the goal of 2 percent of GDP for defense - Poland, USA, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Latvia, United Kingdom, and Slovakia.

As of today, Germany has joined them, whose Minister of Defense announced this news. This is the first time since the Cold War that Germany has allocated two percent of GDP for defense.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that 18 countries will meet this goal this year.

According to Politico, Croatia, with an allocation of 1.8 percent of GDP, is currently sixteenth in NATO by this criterion.

The Ministry of Defense announced at the end of 2022 that Croatia had met the set goal with an allocation of 2.16 percent. However, according to these American media outlets, citing NATO data, a year later the allocations were again insufficient.

The two percent target, set among NATO members two decades ago, is not mandatory but is considered a guideline.

Former US President Donald Trump, who threatened to withdraw the US from the alliance during his term if other members did not pay their costs, does not think so.

Trump, very likely the Republican candidate for the elections in November this year, is threatening the allies again.

He threatened not to protect those countries, which he calls "delinquents," if they are attacked. On the contrary, he said he would encourage Russia "to do whatever the hell it wants" to them.

However, estimates by American media show that all countries bordering Ukraine and Russia, and thus potential targets, allocate more than the requested two percent.

Luxembourg (0.7%), Belgium (1.1%), Spain and Turkey (1.3%) allocate the least.