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United States Allies to NATO rejected President Donald Trump's criticism of their defense spending . This is written by Time. Prior to the NATO summit in Brussels on July 11 and 12, Trump sent letters to leaders of several NATO member states, criticizing them for their low defense spending and warning that the US was losing patience because of the non-fulfillment of the commitments of the Alliance.
After the start of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, NATO, at the 2014 summit in Wales, agreed to increase military spending to 2% of the GDP over a decade.
In a letter to the Associated Press, Norwegian Defense Minister Frank Bakke-Jensen said that "Norway is committed to the goal set by the summit of the United States. NATO in 2014 and will continue to pursue it. " He assured that Norway was spending a lot more on the purchase of military equipment than the NATO member states had agreed.
Norway spends about 27% of the defense budget on major programs, especially the purchase of US aircraft, and plans to increase this figure to 33% in a few years.
In a letter to Norwegian Prime Minister Ernie Solberg, the US president wrote that Norway was "the only ally of NATO on the border of Russia and had no clear plan to allocate 2 % of GDP to defense ".
In a similar letter to Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium, Trump said that "it is becoming increasingly difficult to explain to the American people why some countries do not want to fulfill their common commitments" .
Michel considers the letter "typical" of the situation on the eve of the summit.
"I am not intimidated by this letter," he said, assuring that Belgium fully fulfilled its commitments within the Alliance.
The representative of Canada's Defense Minister René Fiatro stated that Canada was pursuing a plan to increase defense spending. In addition, she said, Canada intends to increase military allocations by 70%.
Recall US Ambassador to Estonia, James Melville Jr., announced that he had resigned as a result of Trump's controversial statements to NATO and to European allies.
As you know, July 16 in Helsinki, a meeting between Trump and Putin . According to the spokesman of Russian President Dmitry Peskov, the leaders of the two countries will discuss a number of very difficult issues, including a thorough discussion of the issue of Ukraine and Syria [19659012]!
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