NATO countries are increasing defense spending due to threat from Russia, - Merz
NATO members have a consensus on the need to increase defense spending. This is, in particular, due to the threat from Russia.
This was stated by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before the start of the second day of the Alliance summit in The Hague, Censor.NET reports citing Ukrinform.
Merz expects that today the member states will make a joint decision to provide NATO with "significantly better resources in the future" - 3.5% for defense and 1.5% for infrastructure for the armed forces.
"All this will be done with great consensus, because we agree that the threat situation has changed. And the threat is especially Russia. Russia threatens not only Ukraine; Russia threatens ... the entire political order of our continent," the German Chancellor emphasized.
He noted that member states make these decisions based on "our own awareness, based on our own conviction that NATO as a whole (and this applies especially to the European part of the Alliance) must do more in the coming years to ensure its own defense capability."
On the sidelines of the summit, Merz has already held a number of meetings, and several more bilateral and multilateral formats are planned, including with the participation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump assured that the United States would stand by its NATO allies to the end. The American leader also praised them for increasing their defense contributions.
