President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg underscored that a record number of members are now pulling their defense spending weight, a key matter former President Donald Trump had with the alliance.
“We have a very important announcement to make today: A record number of allies are meeting NATO’s commitment to [spend] at least 2% of their [gross domestic product] on defense,” Biden told reporters Monday at the start of his meeting with Stoltenberg at the White House.
“In fact, the number has more than doubled since we took office, since I took office, and we look forward to building on all of this progress next month when we have our 75th meeting here in Washington,” he said.
Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister who will step down from the NATO post he has held since 2017 in October, similarly emphasized that 23 of NATO’s 32 members had…
