WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Following reports on Obama’s meeting with Cameron, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter also called on the United Kingdom to keep its military spending at the two-percent level. Carter added that London was risking becoming disengaged if it cuts its military budget.
“This push for more military spending is aimed at keeping the European countries in line with the US policy,” Ohio State University Professor Emeritus John Quigley told Sputnik on Monday.
On June 7, 2015, President Barack Obama urged UK Prime Minister David Cameron to keep defense spending at the NATO-mandated level of two percent of the gross domestic product.
“The Obama administration is concerned that if Britain does not meet its target spending, other European countries will not meet theirs.”
Democracy Institute Director Patrick Basham told Sputnik on Monday that Obama’s decision to put pressure on Cameron is “the rational course of action.”
"The US needs its military allies to cover more of the cost of defending both themselves and Western interests.”
The expert argued that to date, Cameron has shown little interest in beefing-up the UK's defense capability, as he was trying to balance the country’s budget and preserve “an expensive welfare state.”
