NATO Deputy Secretary General Dan Mircea Geoana called on Monday, 27 April, for security not to be forgotten in this time of health crisis.
“The other risks are still there and some are even exacerbated by this pandemic”, he said in a conversation with Friends of Europe. “Nations and leaders and us, in international organisations of the political west, NATO, the EU, we have to make sure when we look to health care crisis, economic contraction, security of our nations, we see them together”, he warned. Geoana added that separating these elements into multiple priorities could, in the medium and longer term, be detrimental to our interest.
While the Allies may be diverting their defence spending target to address the economic and social crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Deputy Secretary General warned that in the face of the threats that still exist, smart investment in defence and national security is important.
Furthermore, according to a report published on 27 April by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), global military spending in 2019 would reach its highest level since the end of the Cold War. It is up 3.6% from 2018, making it the largest annual increase since 2010.
The United States led the way, with military spending accounting for 38% of global spending, ahead of China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia. The top 5 accounted for 62% of global defence spending in 2019.
France was in 6th place, ahead of Germany—which has increased its spending by 10% in one year—and the United Kingdom.
Moreover, the total military expenditure of the 29 NATO member states amounted to $1,035 billion last year, including $732 billion accounted for by the United States alone.
Read the SIPRI report: https://bit.ly/35bCsiI (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)