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Comment by waffle_maniac | Hacker News Reader

Turkey, like Germany, has had time to reconsider how history might think on its response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Turkey is very active in supporting Ukraine since a long time. That's why the Turkish flag was among the flags waved in the Ukrainian parliament: https://twitter.com/haskologlu/status/1488590864658182152/ph...

Although the country did not illuminate any iconic building in the Ukrainian flags colours, they have been providing Ukraine with cutting edge armed drones and diplomatic support against Russia for a while now.

The official Ukrainian media accounts have been praising the Turkish support since the start of the war.

I wouldn't worry too much about Turkey's place in the history books.

Indeed! Ukranians mention Bayraktar drones in several of their videos. Many of the convoy hits were done with them, I read earlier.

Germany is backpaying its nato contribution, and germans are out in numbers claiming germany is yet again suffering for europe. It’s just ridiculous.

German Parliament convened today, they will triple funding for the Bundeswehr.

Good. Anyway I am simply amazed by the UK tho. The eu should agree to a frictionless trade agreement because of their contribution to all this.

That's a start. But Germany is in arrears for many years of not meeting their NATO obligations.

> But Germany is in arrears for many years of not meeting their NATO obligations.

No, they aren't. Spending targets aren't obligations, and there are no “arrears” from them. I know Trump popularized this line as part of his anti-NATO propaganda, but it isn't how things work.

While it is true that the "2% rule" was informal until recently, it is a fact that Europe has decreased its defense spending significantly over the years, from an average of 2% of GDP in the 90s to 1.5% in 2014 when the agreement to go back up to 2% by 2024 was made. In that time, US defense spending rose from 3.1 to 3.4% of GDP. NATO spending targets aren't "obligations" like you say, but don't be surprised when Americans don't want to support Europe's defense so that Europeans, who constantly hate on the US for being "world police", can afford to spend more on social programs. It's kind of sad that the only thing that got the major European countries to start taking their own defense seriously is a neighboring country being invaded.

They're agreements of all members.

The current spending targets are agreements to aim for specific % GDP spending levels by 2024.

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