Hungary calls for NATO nations to increase military spending

Hungary has called on other NATO nations to increase their military spending to protect Europe against future security threats.

In March, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump threatened to withdraw protection of NATO nations if they fail to pay more towards military costs.

Trump's comments sparked outrage from politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, but they have prompted a rethink about how member states fund NATO.

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Hungary's Deputy State Secretary, Marton Ugrosdy, says European nations must fund a modern military capable of defending itself even without U.S. help.

"The message (Trump) has been sending hasn't changed since John F Kennedy in the 1960s - Europe has to pay more attention to defense," he told CGTN. "We have to spend more and we have to have our own capabilities - this is nothing new."

In 2014, NATO heads of state and government agreed to commit 2 percent of their national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to defense spending, to help ensure the alliance's continued military readiness - but that figure was a guide and not all nations have spent the same.

As it stands now, 18 allies are expected to spend at least 2 percent of their GDP on defense – a six-fold increase since 2014, when only three allies met that threshold. Poland is believed to be the biggest contributor towards NATO in terms of percentage of GDP, at 3.9 percent, with the U.S. second with 3.49 percent.

Hungary currently pays around 2.43 percent of its GDP towards NATO and Ugrosdy says their commitment will continue. "We are proud of our commitments," he said. "Our Prime Minister is also a very valued advocate of European strategic autonomy, meaning we should have the capability to defend ourselves.

"We've been advocating this in the last few years. But also, if you look at the modernization of our defense industrial sector, you will see that this will open up opportunities also for our neighbors and our allies to have an increased amount of cooperation when it comes to establishing the capability to defend ourselves."

Russia's conflict with Ukraine presents the biggest current security threat to NATO nations. Along with Romania and Slovakia, Hungary is one of three NATO members to border Ukraine, and Ugrosdy says the alliance is vital to protect the bloc from enemy states in the decades to come.

"We do hope that NATO will remain a defense in the North Atlantic alliance. And as far as it is focused on protecting NATO member states, which is the current position, we can completely sign up to that. 

"Of course, we have internal debates, just we had in the early 2000 about missions in Afghanistan, other places, whether this is not something they should do," he recalled. "But our principles are quite clear that we should keep to the Washington Treaty and keep NATO as a defensive alliance in the future as well."

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