Largest Increase In NATO Defence Spending In 25 Years

NATO saw the single largest increase in defence spending among European member states and Canada in 25 years in 2017, US President Donald Trump has said. 

Speaking after his meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in the White House on Thursday, Mr Trump said they had really strengthened the NATO alliance. 

He said: "The strong working partnership we’ve forged has helped to produce significant increases in member state contributions...

"I think more progress, I can say with surety, more progress has been made in the last year and a half than has been made in many, many years.”

Mr Trump thanked the countries paying 2% of their GDP on defence - saying Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece and the UK were "right up to snuff". 

He said the other countries not spending as much would be "dealt with" and singled out Germany. 

Mr Stoltenberg thanked Mr Trump for his leadership and said it had really impacted on allies, who were adding billions to their budgets. 

He said: 

“We are stepping up our efforts in the fight against terrorism.

"In Afghanistan where we are increasing the number of trainers and the support for the Afghan Government and also in Iraq where we also plan to launch a new training mission at the NATO summit in July.”

The Summit of NATO leaders will happen in Brussels on 11 - 12 July.