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At tomorrow’s NATO summit, Barack Obama and David Cameron are expected to ask other members to spend more on soldiers and weapons as the alliance faces up to an “unpredictable world”.

Leaders of NATO will be meeting on 4 and 5 September in Newport, Wales to discuss the end of combat operations in Afghanistan, NATO’s response to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, and whether global challenges call for an increase in the level of defence spending by NATO members.

The question of how much to invest in our defence is particularly pressing as non-NATO countries’ defence spending is forecast to overtake NATO countries’ spend in 2021.

Indeed by 2015, the sum of Russia and China’s defence budgets are projected to overtake spending by EU countries. As this year’s host, Britain is under pressure.

UK defence spending is relatively high

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According to NATO guidelines, member countries should spend at least 2% of their GDP on defence. Only four countries spent that much in 2013: Estonia, Greece, the USA and the UK.

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There is a noticeable imbalance between US spending and that of its allies. US and British Government officials have repeatedly complained about this.

At a recent parliamentary debate on the defence budget, MP John Baron observed that “it is a sad fact that many of our NATO allies are not pulling their full weight.”

Our budget has actually decreased in the past few years but the UK government has said it is committed to keep it above the 2% threshold.

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Meanwhile the rest of the world is catching up

Global defence spending has in fact risen for the first time since the recession.