Romania Just Pledged To Pay Its NATO Dues — But It Has Nothing To Do With Trump

All of NATO's 28 members have pledged to spend 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense — and most of them are pretty crap at it, to be honest. "America will do our part," Pence said while in Brussels. "But Europe's defense requires Europe's commitment as well as ours," he continued, adding "the patience of the American people will not endure forever."

For the record, the US spends a little over 3% of its GDP on defense spending — but our economy is also absolutely massive, so grain of salt there.

"The budget drafted by the Government of Romania had received prior approval by the Parliament and the defense authorization provisions have been unanimously supported by all political parties," the statement from the embassy read.

"This sets a new milestone in Romania’s NATO membership and reconfirms Romania’s unwavering commitment to transatlantic security."

"Romania’s 2% commitment has been driven primarily by our NATO membership," embassy spokesperson Lucian Purcareanu told BuzzFeed News in an email, after being asked if the decision was at all prompted by President Trump. "One of the first decisions of the Romanian President upon taking office at the end of 2014 was to seek the broadest political consensus to back this commitment. This led to a political agreement in early 2015 between the President and the representatives of all parliamentary parties to support the gradual increase of Romania’ defense budget, targeting the 2% threshold in 2017."

“I want to take this opportunity to commend Greece for being one of the five NATO allies that spends 2% of GDP on defense, a goal that we have consistently set but not everybody has met,” Obama said. “Greece has done this even during difficult economic times. If Greece can meet this NATO commitment, all our NATO allies should be able to do so.”