14 September 2016, 14:43 GMT
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Fewer than three-quarters of NATO’s 28 members are on track to meet the goal of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense spending in the coming years, US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Hoyt Brian Yee said on Wednesday.
"All 28 Allies are moving toward spending at least two percent of GDP on defense with seventy percent already on track to meet that goal by 2024, the target date we… reaffirmed in Warsaw this summer," Yee told a US Senate hearing on NATO expansion.
Currently, only five NATO members, the United States, Greece, Estonia, Poland and the United Kingdom, contribute the required 2 percent of defense spending to NATO.
The United States provides the bulk of defense spending for the military bloc with an annual defense budget of $612 billion in 2016.
