Every country wanting the protection of NATO must pay its fair share and not rely on the UK and US taxpayer to foot the bill, an MP has said.
Shipley MP Philip Davies said while some member states were paying the required amount, it remained the case other countries were failing to do so.
The call comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak returned from the NATO summit in Lithuania where he reiterated his call for all members of the alliance to commit to spending two per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, and updated MPs on recent event.
Speaking in Parliament Mr Davies said: “I thank the Prime Minister for his leading role at the NATO summit. In his statement it said all allies made an enduring commitment to invest at least two per cent of GDP. Many countries have been making this promise for many years but never actually fulfilling it, they want the protection of NATO but they are not paying their fair share towards it, instead relying on the UK taxpayer and the US taxpayer to foot the bill.
“What more can be done to make sure every country in NATO, if they want the protection of NATO, pay their fair share.”
The PM said: “I agree wholeheartedly with him (Philip) and that is why we fought very hard for the new defence investment pledge to set two per cent as an enduring commitment as a floor not a ceiling. I think progress has been made, if he looks at statistics over the last couple of years in particular, he will see an increase, not only in the volume of defence spending across the alliance but in the number of countries that are meeting two percent.
“This is forecast to be as high as two-thirds of all members next year, which will represent a landmark achievement. But he is right we must keep the pressure on and urge everyone to fulfil their two per cent commitment.”
At the summit Mr Sunak told allies that plans to make NATO’s armed forces “more lethal and more deployable” started with meeting the financial commitment.
Figures last year show fewer than half of those in the alliance were meeting the expenditure target with just nine out of thirty spending at least two per cent.