NATO Unveils Plan Sharing Arms Burden

NATO defense ministers, in a major step toward defusing a U.S.-European row, today pledged to work to ensure that the burden of common defense is shared equally among the alliance partners.

The 14 ministers approved a milestone 80-page report that chastised Belgium, Canada and Denmark for failing to fulfill North Atlantic Treaty Organization military targets set for member states.

The report also criticized Denmark, Italy, Spain, Luxembourg and West Germany for falling short of a target for members to spend at least 3% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. It urged several nations to reverse the trend.

GDP is the value of goods and services a country produces, excluding income from abroad.

Sharing out the roles, risks and responsibilities of collective defense equitably is “a prerequisite for the maintenance of alliance cohesion and solidarity,” it said.

Approval of the report at a meeting of the Defense Planning Committee was seen as necessary to appease U.S. congressional critics of the Europeans’ record on defense.

The report conceded that the issue of contributions is complex and accepted the Europeans’ argument that many allies bear a special burden that is difficult to quantify. West Germany, for instance, is host to more than 5,000 military exercises each year, it said.