Montenegrin Defense Minister Predrag Boskovic says the country is on target to spend 2 percent of annual economic output on defense by 2024, in keeping with a promise to expand military budgets as the United States offers an increase in its own defense spending in Europe.
Boskovic met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on Tuesday, his first visit to the Pentagon since Montenegro became the 29th member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in June 2017.
"Montenegro, as a new member, will reach that target by 2024," Boskovic said in an interview with VOA's Serbian Service, after meeting with Mattis. "We are spending 1.7 percent already this year, and I think we can reach 2 percent level without any great effort."
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO allies for not spending enough on defense, claiming it is unfair to taxpayers in the United States. Earlier this month in Brussels, Mattis pressed European allies to stick to a promise to increase military budgets in lockstep with increased U.S. spending.
Fifteen of 28 NATO countries, excluding the United States, now have a strategy to meet a NATO benchmark first agreed to in 2014 in response to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, following years of cuts to European defense budgets.
Afghanistan, Kosovo
Boskovic also announced that his country is planning to increase its troop presence in Afghanistan, where Montenegro currently has 18 soldiers participating in Operation Resolute Support, a NATO-led training and advisory mission with more than 13,000 soldiers.
The mission has been engaged in Afghanistan since 2015.
"We have already made a decision to increase the number of our soldiers in Afghanistan, which needs to be approved by the parliament, and I don't doubt that by next rotation, we'll have more troops in the country," Boskovic told VOA.
Mattis, according to the readout of Tuesday's meeting, praised the "significant contributions Montenegro has made to the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, and lauded the country's plan to meet the Wales Summit defense spending pledge by 2024."
Montenegro has also decided to send members of its armed forces to the NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, known as KFOR. Montenegro's plan to participate in the KFOR mission in Kosovo has been criticized by some officials in Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo's independence.
Two officers are expected to join KFOR by the end of the year, Boskovic told VOA.
This story originated in VOA's Serbian Service.
