Trump's Triumph to Increase Pressure on NATO Allies' Military Budgets – Minister

Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential elections will put more pressure on military budgets of NATO member states, Czech Defense Minister Martin Stropnicky said Wednesday.

PRAGUE (Sputnik) – Stropnicky recalled that Trump had repeatedly stressed that the United States had been burdened by financing NATO's budget with only five member states fulfilling their obligations to spend 2 percent of GPD on their defense.

It is possible that Washington will exert more pressure on its NATO allies "so that they [defense budgets] go up to the necessary level," Stropnicky stressed.

The Czech Republic is now spending about 1 percent of its GDP on defense. The government set the goal to increase the military budget to 1.4 percent of GDP by 2020.

The Czech defense minister also commented on Trump’s wish to improve relations with Russia saying that only crazy people do not want that. "But of course on worthy conditions. Worthy conditions are, for example, implementation of the Minsk agreements," he said.

The Minsk accords were signed between Ukraine and the Donbass Republics in February 2015 to start the peace process in the country.