Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda warned in Berlin that uneven defense spending among allies could lead to a fracture within NATO, as European leaders prepare for next week\u2019s summit in Ankara.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a joint press conference in Berlin alongside the leaders of Latvia, Estonia, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Gitanas Nauseda warned that a disparity in defense spending could cause a natural split of the alliance into two or three groups. According to Nauseda, it would be highly controversial if some nations meet ambitious targets while others remain stagnant at the 2-2.5 percent of GDP level, potentially damaging the spirit of solidarity.<\/p>\n
Last year, NATO members\u2014with the exception of Spain\u2014agreed to reach a 5 percent GDP defense spending target by 2035. Most European countries currently spend significantly less, leaving it unclear how many will realistically meet this objective.<\/p>\n
European leaders met with Chancellor Merz to align their positions ahead of the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara. A key task is convincing U.S. President Donald Trump that European nations are sufficiently increasing their military commitments, amidst concerns that the American leader may weaken U.S. participation or penalize non-compliant allies.<\/p>\n
President Trump recently stated on Truth Social that the United States spends disproportionately more on NATO than any other member, labeling the defense spending of countries like Germany as ridiculous. In response, Chancellor Merz emphasized that Germany is doubling its defense budget within four years, describing it as the most significant effort the country has ever undertaken to strengthen its capabilities.<\/p>\n
Marcin Przydacz, head of the International Policy Bureau at the Polish Presidential Office, stated that Europe must demonstrate the unity of the transatlantic community. While acknowledging that Poland has already reached the 5 percent spending threshold, he interpreted Trump’s rhetoric as an attempt to push other European allies toward greater engagement. President Karol Nawrocki will represent Poland at the Ankara summit.<\/p>\n
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Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda warned in Berlin that uneven defense spending among allies could lead to a fracture within NATO, as European leaders prepare for next week\u2019s summit in Ankara. Risks of Alliance Fragmentation Speaking at a joint press conference in Berlin alongside the leaders of Latvia, Estonia, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Gitanas Nauseda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-and-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8937\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bizonews.com\/pl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}