Trump asks NATO to double military spending target to 4%

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday pushed allies at the NATO summit to enhance their military spending from two to four percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a goal that not even Washington currently meets.

"During the President's remarks today at the NATO summit he suggested that countries not only meet their commitment of 2% of their GDP on defense spending but that they increase it to 4%," Sputnik quoted White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as saying.

The US president also demanded that the NATO members must pay two percent of GDP immediately and not by 2025.

"What good is NATO if Germany is paying Russia billions of dollars for gas and energy? Why are there only 5 out of 29 countries that have met their commitment? The U.S. is paying for Europe's protection, then loses billions on Trade. Must pay 2% of GDP IMMEDIATELY, not by 2025," Trump tweeted.

NATO members agreed in 2014 to move toward spending at least two percent of their GDP on defense by 2024.

Trump has repeatedly rallied against its NATO allies for not meeting the two percent target.

Earlier in the day, Trump took an aim at fellow NATO ally Germany, calling it a "captive" of Russia because of its energy dealings.

Germany is "totally controlled by Russia" because of its dependence on Russian natural gas.

The United States spends heavily to defend Germany from Russia and "Germany goes out and pays billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia," the New York Times, quoted Trump, as saying at his first meeting of the summit, with the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.

"I think it's something that NATO has to look at," Trump added.