ANKARA, July 8. /TASS/. There is no unity within NATO regarding plans to increase defense budgets to 5% of GDP by the 2030s, and the prospect of implementing these plans is not yet clear, Hasan Unal, a well-known Turkish political scientist and professor at the Bashkent University said.
"The implementation of the 5% decision adopted at the last NATO summit remains largely in doubt. It is unclear whether this can be achieved at all. Each country will have to invest 5% of GDP in its defense sector. That's a lot. Spain, for example, has said it is against this. And many NATO countries are against it. The fact that they supported the initiative is understandable. They agreed not to quarrel with the United States, but in reality it is unlikely that everyone will follow this goal," Unal told TASS in an interview.
He said that along with the increase in spending on defense, several issues arise, including compulsory military service. "Will the European public opinion accept this easily? It has already begun to resist. Next, you will have to spend an additional hundreds of billions of dollars on defense, and then other sectors of the economy will start asking for help. Russia can afford such investments now, as it is in a state of war. And the public will understand the additional costs. This is a difficult issue for Europeans living in peaceful conditions," he said.
The professor believes that US President Donald Trump expects that by convincing other NATO countries to increase their defense budgets, he will provide orders for the American military-industrial complex.
"Not all countries will and can develop their own military industry, so they will buy weapons from the United States. But there are a number of states that are able to develop independently in this area. Great Britain, France, which provides itself 100% with everything for defense. Germany is somewhat behind in this regard, but it can also produce everything. Italy has its own defense industry, which needs to be developed," he said.
Unal noted that judging by the statements of the German government it is focused on the development of the domestic military industry. "It probably needs this to be able to restructure its entire industrial sector through transition to a new economic structure. In some ways, of course, this is reminiscent of what happened in Germany in the 1930s in terms of restructuring," said the professor.
Unal believes that the increase in the alliance's defense spending creates "good prospects" for Turkey. "Although Turkey, as I believe, cannot increase these expenditures to 5% of GDP, nevertheless, our prospects are positive. We have already made quite a lot of investment in this area. We also have significant export potential," he said.