
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 18, 1990                   TAG: 9005180183
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. EASES NATO STAND/ ALLIES NO LONGER ASKED TO RAISE DEFENSE BUDGETS

The United States is no longer asking NATO allies to increase defense budgets by the long-standing but rarely achieved goal of 3 percent a year, the Pentagon said Thursday in a major reversal of policy.

The decision - described by officials as a decision of the entire alliance - bows to the reality of the lessened threat of attack on the NATO alliance from the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact.

Although an announcement apparently was being readied for a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels next week, the Pentagon released the information in a written statement in response to a reporter's query.

"Given the changes in European security requirements, we are no longer asking our allies to increase their defense budgets by 3 percent," the statement said.

Instead of meeting the long-standing spending target, the statement said, the United States is asking the allies to "contribute to the military force structure required by the NATO military command."

The spending target, stated in terms of "real" or inflation-adjusted spending, was set under President Carter in 1977, primarily in response to congressional demands that the burgeoning economies of Europe take up more of the burden of their own defense.

Few countries have met the targets in recent years, given the shift toward improving relations with the Soviet Union that has been the trend for many Western European democracies, even prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989.

From 1980 through 1986, growth in real U.S. defense outlays exceeded 3 percent each year, peaking at a 9 percent increase from 1984 to 1985. But since then there has been little growth, and outlays are expected to decline by 6 percent in real terms this year.

by CNB