00:00If this 5% is applied progressively because if you look at each individual economy within the NATO member states, I mean not everyone can actually fulfill this target because that would eventually mean cutting back on certain public spending which could cause domestic issues eventually.
00:17So, yeah, I would disagree with you on that point more than slightly really because the way I look at it is that, you know, with the superpowers in the world, you've got Russia on one side and you've basically, well, we've now got China as well, so there's basically three.
00:32But I think if Russia decides to expand its borders, then America can't just let it do that if it feels like and we've, you know, it's already shown that it's willing to do that.
00:42So to keep the balance of power, the superpowers, it's in America's interest as well to support its allies that are geographically close to Russia.
00:52So I think it has to continue to support its NATO allies.
00:57But I think it's just the transactional relationship that Trump has with these countries.
01:04And he's always said that he wanted them to increase more on defense.
01:07And I think, you know, obviously it is a bit more of a precarious, which is an understatement, you know, situation when you look at what's happening around the world in everywhere from Ukraine to Gaza to, you know, India, Pakistan.
01:21You know, you could look at Taiwan and China.
01:24So there's a lot going on in the world.
01:25So there's a lot to justify spending more on defense at this time.
01:30So the theory and what Trump was saying back in 2017 now has a lot more weight behind it, I would say.
