Trump pitches for NATO members to carry greater financial burden in future

President Donald Trump wants NATO members to continue increasing their financial contributions, offering allies his praise for stepping up those contributions in recent years but still complaining the US continues to carry more than its share of costs. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited the White House on Tuesday ahead of an address to Congress that's scheduled for Wednesday. His trip to the US comes as the alliance marks its 70th anniversary.

Trump took credit for the increased defense spending by NATO members even though the upswing began before Trump took office. After Russia's 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, member countries agreed to boost defense budgets and "move toward" spending 2% of their gross domestic product on defense by 2024. The US spends about 3.4 per cent of its GDP on defense.