President Barack Obama said on May 31 he has made “real progress” in talks with NATO about compelling the 28-nation alliance to invest more in military capabilities.
Obama told reporters he discussed “the importance of continuing to improve NATO defense capabilities in a new world with new threats,” during a bilateral meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
With Rasmussen at his side at the White House, Obama said the Danish politician “has taken the lead talking with all the NATO members about how we start building up greater and greater capacity and integration that requires burden-sharing on the part of all NATO members.”
“It means that, even during times of austerity, that we work smarter together to ensure that we can meet and are prepared for any threats that may arise, whether it is improving our joint surveillance capabilities or addressing new threats like cybersecurity,” Obama said.
U.S. military leaders have lamented that NATO nations have not spent more on their military capabilities. Former defense secretary Robert Gates, notably, in one of his final speeches in office in June 2011, said he saw a “dim if not dismal future” for NATO if member nations don’t work harder to prevent major cuts to their defense budgets, better allocate resources, and follow through on commitments to the transatlantic alliance. Many of the 28 allies do not heed a requirement for spending 2 percent of their gross domestic products on defense.
Obama, though, said May 31 that because of Rasmussen’s leadership “we’ve made real progress on this front.”
One of the “goals” of a newly announced NATO summit next year will be “to lock in some of the progress that’s already been made into a set of commitments that are clearly understood by all the NATO members,” Obama said.
Rasmussen said as NATO draws down operations in Afghanistan its members will “enhance the modernization of our defense to ensure effective protection of our populations against new and emerging security threats and challenges.”
“That’s why we are building a NATO missile defense, strengthening cybersecurity, and we will step up joint military exercises, training, and education to maintain and further develop our ability to work and operate together,” he said. He described NATO changing from “a deployed NATO to a prepared NATO.”
Obama noted the role NATO can play in helping the Libyan government transition after decades under a dictatorship.
“We think it’s critical that we have strong partners in places like North Africa that are able to meet the security needs of their own people but are also working with the international community to meet the security needs of all of us,” Obama said.