Fakt: Trump will require NATO countries to allocate 5% of GDP for defense
Trump will demand that NATO countries allocate 5% of their GDP to defense, writes Fakt. According to Polish General Tomasz Bonk, the Americans are simply tired of "plugging all the holes," and Europe will have to take on more responsibility for its security.
Kamil Yavorsky
The British newspaper Financial Times reported that Donald Trump wants NATO countries to allocate 5% of their GDP to defense. No country spends such amounts today. "We are talking about European states expressing a clear desire to increase their defense budgets, and this should be visible," explains General Tomasz Bonk, former commander of the 21st Brigade of the Podhalan Riflemen, a lecturer and professor at the Rzeszów Graduate School, in an interview with Fakt.
"People from Trump's inner circle, including his foreign policy advisers, conveyed to their European interlocutors that the future president would demand an increase in spending by the alliance countries on weapons, but after his inauguration, he still intends to maintain military aid supplies to Ukraine," the statement said.
Does Trump want NATO countries to spend 5% of their GDP on defense? "This pressure is being applied on purpose"
The current threshold for defense spending in NATO member countries has been 2% of GDP since 2014. The Alliance was preparing to raise this threshold to 3%. Meanwhile, according to world media reports, the US president-elect is making much more serious demands. Today, Poland, as well as Estonia, the United States, Latvia and Greece spend the most in the alliance in relation to their own GDP. Our country is the leader of this list, and Poland's spending is expected to exceed the 4% ceiling in 2025. How should we treat reports about Trump's intentions regarding the five percent barrier?
Poland should reach this ceiling in 2026. Such a forecast exists.
"Perhaps Trump is deliberately putting pressure on European states, because so far there have been many omissions in this regard, which has been shown to us by the issue of preparing NATO states for a possible conflict," says General Tomasz Bonk.
"Things like a shortage of ammunition, production capacity, and equipment began to come to light. Of course, some of the old equipment was transferred to Ukraine, while the public got the impression that it was not entirely clear whether the European part of NATO was ready to repel any aggression," he adds.
As General Tomasz Bonk says, the Americans have long disliked the fact that they "plug all the holes when it comes to maintaining peace."
"I am not at all surprised that the president-elect will try to exert strong pressure on European countries. Of course, this does not mean that if these costs do not increase immediately, the United States will be ready to withdraw from Europe and from NATO. I don't think there will be any such drastic steps. Because Europe needs the United States, and they need Europe. Let's not forget about the economic war between China and the United States. The Americans absolutely need Europe's support here," General Bonk recalls.
"It's a matter of our security capabilities"
"In my opinion, we in Europe should mobilize ourselves, because it seems that soon it may be too late. And it shouldn't be like that. After all, it has long been talked about creating common defense capabilities of the European Union. They somehow faded into the background. And now it turns out that this concept is needed. And whether we will increase spending within NATO is also a matter of our security and defense capabilities within Europe, which will be greater," the general notes. Tomasz Bonk.
"We are talking about European states expressing a clear desire to increase their defense budgets, and this should be visible," the military concluded.
