A high-tension NATO summit in Brussels, Trump threatens to leave NATO and pushes to get all alliance members to spend at least 2% of domestic GDP on military spending under the 2015 agreements. The Guardian reports that Bulgarian President Rumen Radev reportedly told the press that Trump will push for NATO member countries to raise defense spending to 4% of GDP.
A high number if we consider the MIL € X 2018 report, edited by Enrico Piovesana, who, as far as Italy is concerned, revealed that 25 billion euros for Italian military spending are for 2018, 1,4 per cent of GDP, with an increase of 4 percent compared to 2017. This is now a growth trend initiated by the Renzi government (with an increase of 8,6 percent compared to 2015) which shows no signs of stopping. In fact, in 2018 the budget of the Ministry of Defense also grew (21 billion, 3,4% more than in 2017) and the contributions of the Ministry of Economic Development for the purchase of new weapons (3,5 billion of which 427 million mortgage cost, ie 115% more in the last three legislatures).
During the bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Trump also made explicit references to Germany. "Germany is a prisoner of Russia on energy and then we should protect her from Russia, explain it to us. There are countries like Poland that would not accept Russian gas because they would be prisoners of Russia".
Stoltenberg has tempered the spirits saying "I would focus on what we have agreed, which is the 2% of GDP for defense spending, let's start with this". "It is true that there are discussions and disagreements, but what matters is the substance , we are giving results ".
Stoltenberg also remarked that "the allies have pledged to increase defense spending" to 2% by 2024 "and we are moving in the right direction. The summit is very important "and various topics will be discussed including command structures in the US and Germany and efforts to fight terrorism".
In this regard the premier Giuseppe Conte, in a tweet at the end of the first day of the NATO summit in Brussels wrote "full operation for the Hub of Naples. Thanks to Italy, Nato's greater attention to the challenges of Southern Europe ".