Defense spending NATO countries light up

brussels - The defense expenditure of NATO countries have risen for the first time since 2009 slightly in 2016 from an average of 1.44 to 1.47 percent of their national income. In 23 of the 28 countries increased the defense budget to last year, totaling $ 10 billion.

That made NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Monday in Brussels familiar with the presentation of the annual report 2016 of the military alliance. The trend not to cut back more on defense started, according to him in 2015 and is continuing. The spending NATO countries have committed in 2024, 2 percent of their national income on defense.

The Netherlands is an estimated 1.16 percent of GDP, still far behind in 2016. According to Stoltenberg, however ' realistic 'that all NATO countries deliver on their promise to pay within ten years. The US remains the largest payer, with 3.61 percent of their GDP.