The overall defense budget of all 28 NATO member states exceeds $1 trillion, of that about 75 percent is spent by the US. The alliance is financed by all members through three general sources. The first is a common fund ($3.3 billion) is used to maintain the main office and staff. With over $707 million, the US is the largest contributor to this fund. Next come Germany ($474), Great Britain ($358) and France ($357). Two others are the international mission fund (wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) and special projects fund (arms development, etc.). These are funded by unknown additional contributions of each NATO member state. At a time of economic recession, NATO is constructing a huge new $1 billion headquarters in Brussels. The eight-floor structure contains enough blast-proof glass to cover 10 football fields.
The Dutch government’s, the Netherlands Court of Audit (NCA), collected information from open sources on NATO expenditures over the last 40 years and claims that state officials from all of NATO’s 28 member states actually have no idea where the alliance’s funds go and who’s the final recipient of huge amounts of money.
A third, or $2.4 billion, of the Netherlands’ $7.8 billion military budget in 2013 was spent on NATO missions in Afghanistan.
The Dutch government’s, the Netherlands Court of Audit (NCA), collected information from open sources on NATO expenditures over the last 40 years and claims that state officials from all of NATO’s 28 member states actually have no idea where the alliance’s funds go and who’s the final recipient of huge amounts of money.
A third, or $2.4 billion, of the Netherlands’ $7.8 billion military budget in 2013 was spent on NATO missions in Afghanistan.
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