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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUS presses Nato members to increase defence spending
One tour group stood out among the mainly elderly guests crowded into the Radisson Hotel close to Riga's Old Town. It was not just that their breakfast plates in the vast restaurant were piled much higher than anyone else's, but that all 100-plus of them were dressed in US army camouflage.
The Americans were part of a US-led multinational force engaged in a large-scale military exercise in Latvia. More such groups can be expected in the months ahead as Nato ramps up its presence in an effort to reassure Latvia and other Baltic states nervous over Russia's actions in the Ukraine.
The US is calling on Nato members to increase defence spending by billions of pounds to revive the 28-member alliance in the face of a renewed threat from its oldest adversary.
With Russia and the Ukraine situation topping the agenda of a Nato foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, US defence officials want every Nato member to spend a minimum of 2% of GDP on defence. At present, according to Nato data, only four countries do: the US, Britain, Greece and Estonia.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/23/us-nato-members-increase-defence-spending
Fuck off comes to mind.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)DJ13
(23,671 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)we decrease ours proportionately.
TheKentuckian
(24,943 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)to the high thirties, while everybody else picks up some of the slack.
In fact the FY 2014 proposed budget is exactly that.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSvq2GRBHFaEhs-9QLfCvwvVU6dXpnEk5Ssd1ZZCZ8K41mLY5Uvlg