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NATO Members Post New Defense-Spending Increase
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Nations’ military budgets expand to average 2.42% of GDP
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Germany praised by NATO chief for propelling European growth
The U.S. led with defense expenditure of 3.57 percent of GDP last year.
Photographer: Truong Giang/AFP via Getty Images
NATO members increased overall defense spending for a second consecutive year in 2017 as President Donald Trump turned longstanding U.S. calls for Europe to foot more of the common security bill into blunt criticism of allies.
Total defense expenditure by North Atlantic Treaty Organization members grew to 2.42 percent of their gross domestic product last year from 2.4 percent, the alliance said in an annual report released on Thursday in Brussels. The increase in 2016 was the first since 2009.
