MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, the IISS presented an annual analysis of the world's military capabilities, which revealed that only Greece and Estonia met the NATO criteria of spending 2 percent of their GDP on defense, while the United Kingdom's spending dropped to 1.98 percent.
"These figures are wrong: Nato's own figures clearly show that the UK spends over 2 per cent of its GDP on defence," the Defense Ministry's spokesman said, as quoted by The Telegraph newspaper.
In November 2016, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the meeting with UK Prime Minister Theresa May that Britain was playing a leading role in NATO by meeting the alliance’s commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense, "contributing troops to deterrence measures in Eastern Europe." The parties agreed to encourage NATO allies to meet the two-percent level and increase defense spending.
