US pressure to increase defence spending

Stuff reports:

The Trump administration is pushing Australia to commit to a dramatic increase in defence spending to counter China’s rise, with one of the US president’s top Pentagon picks calling for military spending to rise to at least 3% of gross domestic product.

An increase to 3% from the current 2% level, which is about NZ$62 billion, would require tens of billions of dollars in extra spending each year, straining the Commonwealth’s ability to spend on other portfolios such as health, education and welfare.

2% used to be the target for NATO countries. Now in Europe people are talking about 3% being a minimum spend, and some saying they may need to go to 5%.

Meanwhile in NZ, we spend just 1.2% of GDP on defence. This is not a sustainable position.