The issue of NATO’s funding has been raised repeatedly by Trump’s administration, which stressed all the alliance's members should respect their NATO budget responsibilities. According to the NATO 2014 Wales Summit Declaration, the alliance member states should pursue the target of spending 2 percent of their GDP to funding NATO within a decade.
“Having been a NATO officer, under President Bush and President Obama and then having been back there in Brussels representing the Department of Defense under President Trump… this is a consistent message that we have given the NATO nations,” Mattis told the broadcaster.
The US defense secretary underlined that countries are currently spending more funds on the defense than five or ten years ago.
“They get the best defense in the world, the NATO countries, and we've all got to be willing to deal with it like a bank: if you want to take something out of it you've got to put something into it,"Mattis stressed.
Only five countries — Estonia, Greece, Poland, the United States and the United Kingdom — currently meet the standard of NATO obligatory financial contribution.
