Biden Criticizes NATO Allies Failure to Meet Defense Spending Commitments

An unacceptable number of US partners within the NATO alliance have fallen short on military spending targets that they had committed to at the 2014 Wales Summit, US Vice President Joe Biden stated on Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Each NATO member agreed to spend two percent of its Gross Domestic Product at NATO’s September 2014 summit in Wales.

“Too many of our [NATO] allies are still failing to meet their commitments they made at Wales, at the Wales Summit, to spend two percent of their GDP on defense.”

Collective defense must be a shared responsibility that goes beyond rhetoric and includes an actual dedication of resources, Biden noted.

The United States provides the largest contribution to the NATO budget, covering some 75 percent of the bloc’s total expenditures.

Several NATO countries have increased their spending on the armed forces following the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine.

A total of six countries, however, including the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, continued to make cuts to their defense spending in 2015 despite their NATO commitments, according to a European Leadership Network report.