US Defense Secretary Patrick Chanahan and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO allies were expected to increase defense spending by about $ 100 billion by 2020.
"The recent increase in our funding has made it possible to improve deterrence and defense by expanding and increasing training, as well as improvements in infrastructure and modernization of NATO's response force and command structure," Shanahan told a news conference after talks with Stoltenberg in Washington on Monday.
He said allocations for Afghanistan-related spending had risen 12 percent since 2017, and estimates that since US President Donald Trump took office, NATO allies have increased their spending by $ 31 billion, a growth of 9 percent to be the largest in 25 years.
"I am encouraged that we are moving ahead with the readiness initiative - 30 ground troops, 30 air squadrons and 30 warships ready to fight within 30 days or less," he said.
"Now we know that our work is still in its infancy and we recognize the need to move from theory to application and then to results," he said.
For his part, Stoltenberg said: "NATO is already making a lot of progress in many different areas, including the high readiness of our forces and intensify the war against terrorism and also invest more in sharing the burden of defense."
He noted that for the first time NATO has ready to fight forces in the eastern part of the alliance.
He pointed out that the reason for the presence of NATO in Afghanistan "is to create an environment for peaceful solution to ensure that Afghanistan will once again become a safe haven for international terrorists and to send a message to the Taliban that they will not win on the battlefield."
He also referred to NATO's plan to pump $ 100 billion in additional defense spending.
