Since NATO was created so the USA would protect the European countries against the (Soviet Union) Russians, and they are now in deals with Russia, spending money and giving monies to Putin's Russia and not paying even the 2% to NATO, there is no reason for the US to continue to carry them, and pay for their protection. (I'm all for cancelling the Treaty altogether at this rate. They have made their beds with Russia...)
Secretary General Annual Report NATO
See charts also pp 33, 34
The ability of the Alliance to fulfil all its tasks depends on it having the right tools and
capabilities. That, in turn, means appropriate investment in defence, with all 29 Allies
contributing their fair share.
NATO Allies need to invest in developing, acquiring
and maintaining the right capabilities for the Alliance
to be able to fulfil its core purpose of defending nearly
one billion citizens in Europe and North America.
The Alliance attaches great importance to its
ongoing efforts to ensure a better balance and fairer
burden-sharing across three specified elements:
defence expenditure; investments in capabilities;
and contributions to NATO’s operations, missions
and activities.
At the 2014 Summit in Wales, NATO Heads of State
and Government signed up to a Defence Investment
Pledge.
The pledge called for all Allies that do
not already meet the
NATO-agreed guideline
of spending 2% of Gross Domestic Product
(GDP) on defence
to stop cuts to defence budgets,
gradually increase spending, and aim to move
towards spending 2% of GDP on defence within a
decade. They also agreed to move towards
spending
at least 20% of annual defence expenditure on
major new equipment
, including related research
and development, in the same timeframe.
Since then, Allies have made significant progress in
meeting these goals. After years of defence cuts,
the trend over the last
three years has been one of
increased defence spending.
For all the graphs in this chapter of the report, it should be noted that Iceland
has no armed forces.
Note: The figures presented at aggregate level may differ from the sum of their
component due to rounding.
In 2017, the trend continued, with European Allies
and Canada increasing their defence expenditure
by almost 5%. Many Allies have put in place national
plans to reach 2% by 2024 and are making progress
towards that goal. In real terms, defence spending
among European Allies and Canada increased
by 4.87% from 2016 to 2017, with an additional
cumulative spending increase of USD 46 billion for
the period from 2015 to 2017, above the 2014 level.
In 2017, the United States accounted for 51.1% of
the Allies’ combined GDP and 71.7% of combined
defence expenditure. At the same time, European
Allies and Canada increased their spending, helping
to redress the balance.
Progress was also made on the commitment to
invest 20% or more of defence expenditure in major
new capabilities. In 2017,
26 Allies spent more
in real terms
on major equipment than they did
in 2016. The number of Allies meeting the NATO-
agreed 20% guidelines
rose to 12 in 2017.
