Under U.S. pressure, Europe has increased its defense spending, according to an expert.

President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, continues to criticize Europe for its insufficient defense spending. However, the situation has changed, and military expenditures on the continent have significantly increased.

This was stated by Pavel Zhovnirenko, chairman of the board of the NGO "Center for Strategic Studies," in a comment to RBK-Ukraine.

"In my opinion, there are reasons to criticize Trump, particularly regarding Ukraine, but concerning NATO, he accomplished something very important during his first presidency. He made it clear that countries need to pay and invest in their own defense, rather than relying on the United States," he said.

According to him, if Trump were to come into office for the first time now, it would be very, very detrimental, as NATO would not be prepared.

As noted in the RBK-Ukraine article "NATO during Trump's presidency. Can the U.S. exit the alliance and what are the consequences?", Central and Eastern European countries, which have already reached the 2% target, are lobbying for increased defense spending with the support of the new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. Their demands seem to be heard.

According to Bloomberg, NATO is considering raising the defense spending guideline from 2% to 3% of GDP. Sources from the publication indicate that priority tasks will include strengthening air defense, offensive weapon systems, and nuclear deterrent capabilities.

When the regulation will be implemented is unknown, but typically, such decisions are made at the annual NATO summits. The next one is scheduled for June next year in The Hague.

Importantly, European NATO members already have their own "nuclear umbrella," although it is not as powerful as the American one.

"The United Kingdom and France are more decisive; they are also nuclear powers and take such commitments (within NATO) more seriously. I believe, ultimately, Germany will too. In other words, solidarity within NATO remains, even without the United States," said Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Center for Eastern European Studies, to RBK-Ukraine.

We remind you that there are significant discrepancies in defense spending among NATO member countries. Poland allocated a record 186.6 billion zlotys (46 billion dollars) for defense this year, or 4.7% of GDP, while Germany, the largest provider of military aid from the EU to Ukraine, will spend 2.1% or 72 billion euros this year.