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Europe placates Trump with NATO pledges it can ill afford

Reuters · Mark John · last updated

In their rush to retain Donald Trump’s support for NATO, the alliance’s European members have promised to more than double the amount of wealth they set aside for military spending.

The snag is that most can ill-afford to spend 5% of output on defence — so while there will be some unpalatable sacrifices in national budgets, there will also be some creative accounting to divert existing spending to the effort.