The eight Nato nations failing to make the spending grade

Much has been made of the fact that 23 out of the 31 member nations of Nato are now on line for spending the required two per cent of GDP on defence. This has been described as a wonderfully encouraging achievement at the Nato summit in Washington. But this two per cent obligation has been a fixture of Nato membership for so long it seems amazing that there are still eight countries who have failed, in some cases, quite miserably, to reach that target. Who are they: Croatia on 1.8 per cent, so getting there slowly, Portugal on 1.55 per cent, Italy on 1.49 per cent, Canada on 1.3 per cent, Belgium on 1.3 per cent, Luxembourg on 1.2 per cent, Slovenia on 1.29 per cent and Spain on 1.28 per cent. Apart from Creoatia they have a long way to go but are they planning to spend more over the next year or so? There seem to be no guarantees. Actually the Nato stipulation now is "at least two per cent". So they are a long way off. Good luck to them if Donald Trump becomes president. I see that Rishi Sunak's pledge to spend 2.5 per cent on defence has already been pushed to one side by the new prime minister, Keir Starmer. The Labour leader says he will only spend that much on defence when there's proper growth in the economy to allow for it, which, I guess, seems reasonable.