NATO To Name And Shame Member Countries Evading Defence Spending Targets

Incensed by the new trend of slashing defence budgets by member states, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is planning to "name and shame" countries, which are not spending the targeted amounts on defence as prescribed by the alliance.

Accordingly, NATO will publish a “league table” amid rising concerns over the uncertain security scenario that started with Russia's "stealth" aggression in Ukraine. So far, the U.K. has been the most prompt among four members that met the required figure of two percent of gross domestic product towards defence expenditure. However, the U.K. is now mulling a cut in defence spending as part of its effort to manage the budget deficit.

Low Spenders

According to reports, the NATO defence spending league table may be be published in the third week of June ahead of a NATO defence ministers meet in Brussels. The chart will rank the 28 member countries according to the spending levels in 2014 and ultimately show that only the U.K., U.S., Greece and Estonia have met the target.

Worried at the U.K.'s move to cut defence budget, President Barack Obama met Prime Minister David Cameron in Germany during the G7 summit and urged him to ensure that defence spending is not slashed. Michael Fallon, Britain’s Defence Secretary also made a suggestion that it has plans to show part of the foreign aid budget meant for stabilising countries against conflicts as part of the defence budget. But Lord Robertson, former Labour Defence Secretary and ex-NATO Secretary-General, dismissed that idea as "just sleight of hand and double entry bookkeeping.”

Russia Warns

Meanwhile, NATO got a crude warning from Russia that it will retaliate if the U.S. government places tanks and heavy armoury in NATO countries bordering its door step. “If heavy US military equipment, including tanks, artillery batteries and other equipment really does turn up in countries in eastern Europe and the Baltics, that will be the most aggressive step by the Pentagon and NATO since the Cold War,” Russian defence ministry official General Yuri Yakubov said. Russia will have no option but to build up its forces and resources on the Western strategic front, he added, according to a report in The Independent.

The U.S., is reportedly going ahead with plans to keep the weapons on allied territories in a bid to reassure governments which have been feeling insecure that NATO is not doing much to deter Russia. The Russian response may include delivering more missiles to its exclave of Kaliningrad between Poland and Lithuania and jacking up troop numbers at Belarus.

Polish Defence Minister Tomasz Siemoniak said he was expecting a final US decision on the equipment in a few weeks. “They know how important this is to us, because we want to build a permanent U.S presence, the allied army here on the Polish territory, ” Siemoniak told reporters and added that “equipment warehouses are a very crucial step when it comes to building such a presence.”

(For feedback/comments, contact the writer at k.kumar@ibtimes.com.au)