NATO lifts its game as Trump rattles the Trans-Atlantic alliance

New figures show 18 members will hit the 2 per cent spending pledge.

In the year that Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea and likely approved the downing of MH17, just three NATO members — the US, the UK and Greece — were spending 2 per cent of their GDP on defence.

In the wake of Russia’s aggression, NATO member states meeting in Wales that year agreed that those falling short would ‘aim to move towards the …