Mark Rutte used to be the Dutch PM and his part in NATO is to advance the collective security of Europe, now by keeping the US on board. It’s a something for nothing.
The 5% is not binding, it’s just words on a paper, not even the US spends 5%.
Furthermore, in the negotiations, they have allowed a lot of infrastructure projects to be counted towards this percentage calculations. So, there may not be much in the way of new actual military spending, just improving the roads/rails of the agreeing countries. That seems a lot easier to sell to the folks that are further from Russia.
Mark Rutte used to be the Dutch PM and his part in NATO is to advance the collective security of Europe, now by keeping the US on board. It’s a something for nothing.
The 5% is not binding, it’s just words on a paper, not even the US spends 5%.
Furthermore, in the negotiations, they have allowed a lot of infrastructure projects to be counted towards this percentage calculations. So, there may not be much in the way of new actual military spending, just improving the roads/rails of the agreeing countries. That seems a lot easier to sell to the folks that are further from Russia.
Spain even got an opt-out lol