A record number of NATO allies are hitting their defense spending targets amid the war in Ukraine

WASHINGTON (AP) – A record 23 of NATO's 32 member nations are hitting the Western military alliance's defense spending targets this year, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, as Russia's war in Ukraine The conflict in Europe raises the threat of expansion.

The estimated figure is almost a four-fold increase from 2021, when only six countries were meeting the target. This was before Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Europeans are doing more for their collective security than they have been in years,” Stoltenberg said in a speech at the Wilson Center Research Group.

After the speech, Stoltenberg met with President Joe Biden at the White House. The US president said the alliance had become “bigger, stronger and more united than it is now” under Stoltenberg.

Biden spoke fondly of Stoltenberg, calling him “pal” and saying he wanted Stoltenberg, who has been NATO secretary general since 2014, to serve another term when the current term expires in October.

“Together, we have prevented further Russian aggression in Europe,” Biden said. “We strengthened NATO's eastern flank, making it clear that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.”

Stoltenberg noted that allies are buying more military equipment from the United States “so NATO is good for US security, but NATO is also good for US jobs.” she said.

NATO members agreed to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense last year. The increase in spending reflects concerns about the war in Ukraine.

Poland, with more than 4%, and tiny Estonia both led the United States in the percentage of their GDP spent on defense this year. Both countries border Russia.

Defense spending across the European ally and Canada rose by nearly 18% this year alone, the biggest increase in decades, according to NATO estimates released Monday.

Some countries are also worried about the possible re-election of former President Donald Trump, who has characterized many NATO allies as freeloading US military spending and said on the campaign trail that He will not protect NATO members which does not meet defense spending targets.

Stoltenberg told reporters, “There was a very valid point in the US administration's transition that US allies were spending too little. “The good news is that's changing.”

Stoltenberg's visit is expected to lead to an important summit of NATO leaders in Washington next month. The mutual-defense alliance has grown in strength and size since Russia's invasion of Ukraine two years ago, with both Sweden and Finland joining.

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, many European countries cut defense spending, which seemed to neutralize what was then the main security threat to the West.

But after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014, NATO members unanimously agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense within a decade. The full-scale offensive that Putin launched in 2022 has re-energized European nations on the front lines of the war in Europe's heartland to devote more resources to the goal.

Much of the focus of the summit is expected to address what NATO and NATO member governments can do for Ukraine as it faces relentless air and ground attacks from its more powerful neighbor. They have so far resisted calls from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to take his country into the bloc as long as the war continues.

Stoltenberg has already hinted at efforts to strengthen Ukraine. These include streamlining Ukraine's NATO membership process, and individual NATO countries providing updated weapons and training to Ukraine's military, including the United States providing it with F-16s and bringing Ukrainian pilots to the United States for advanced aircraft training.

“The idea is to get them so close to membership that when the time comes, when there is consensus, they can become members directly,” Stoltenberg said.

But at the conclusion of Russia's offensive, only taking Ukraine into the alliance will deter Putin from trying to conquer Ukraine again in the future, the NATO chief said.

“When the war ends, NATO membership for Ukraine” “assures that the war will really end,” he said.

The prospect of Ukraine joining NATO has long been unsettling to Putin, and was one of his stated motivations for seizing Crimea. He offered last week to order an immediate cease-fire if Ukraine rejected plans to join the alliance, an offer that Ukraine rejected.

A Weekend conference held in Switzerland Billed as a first step towards peace and ending with a promise to work towards a solution but was Some concrete is available. It was mainly attended by Western countries and Russia was not invited. China removed it and then India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Mexico did not sign the final document of the meeting on Sunday.

Kiev's forces are outgunned and outnumbered Fighting to contain the larger Russian army, which has taken over after political conflict caused delays in US and European military aid. Ukraine has been short of troops, ammunition and air defenses in recent months as Kremlin forces attempt to disrupt national power supplies and punch through front lines in the eastern part of the country.