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The North Atlantic Alliance has signed a contract to procure $700 million (16.3 billion kroner) worth of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles for several member states. Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this during a speech to defense officials on the sidelines of the NATO summit.
He said military spending by allies was still growing, with at least 23 countries set to spend 2 percent or more of their gross domestic product on their militaries this year.
Stoltenberg assured representatives of arms companies: “Defense spending will increase, and countries will increase their investments in the products you supply.” Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops the year before, the alliance has been working to increase weapons production in order to be able to continue to support the defending Ukrainian troops and replenish its own supplies. However, for this, it is necessary to increase the production capacity of the armory.
The NATO chief said allies were increasingly focusing on joint production and procurement of weapons, citing the example of the Stinger missile contract that the alliance body signed on behalf of several unspecified countries.
According to him, the increase in spending is reflected in the fact that, while only a few countries fulfilled their commitment to spend 2% on the military before the start of the Russian invasion, this year 23 of 32 countries will do so. Among them is the Czech Republic, whose government intends to remain above this threshold in the coming years. The new British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that the UK intends to increase spending to 2.5% in the future, but must first evaluate its current military strategy.
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