2022 will go down in history as his year war in Ukraine, and the war in Ukraine already stands out as the largest military conflict to unfold in Europe since the Second World War. The cause of the war, which served as a crossroads in the course of History, causing profound international political changes.

However, even in such a year of war, despite loud statements, some things in Europe have not changed. Of the 30 NATO member countries, only seven spent at least 2% of their GDP on defense in 2022.

Who were they? OUR Hellas, Great Britain, USA, Poland and his countries Baltic (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). In comparison, there were eight countries that reached the 2% target in 2021, which means that last year, at the height of the war, they did not increase, but decreased.

“Is there a war? EU great powers still fall short of NATO defense spending targets (ss: 2% of GDP)”, notes Politico.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kalas, whose country spent 2.12% of Estonia’s GDP on defense last year, says she is “shocked” that many other NATO countries during the war fell short of the 2% of GDP that NATO set as target indicator. defense spending.

At the same time, however, it is noted that NATO allies they have indeed increased their defense spending in recent years. “European Allies and Canada have increased their defense spending for the eighth year in a row,” NATO notes in a annual report for 2022 (“Secretary General’s Annual Report 2022”), which was released today.

“There is no doubt that we need to do more and do it faster. The speed at which we are increasing defense spending is not fast enough. In a more dangerous world, we need to invest more in defense,” the Alliance Secretary General said today. Jens Stoltenbergfrom Brussels, during a press conference.

According to Politico, Reuters