BRUSSELS - Defense ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ended their two-day talks in Brussels on Thursday whose agenda was dominated by discussions about increasing defense spending.
The issue became more consequential as U.S. President Donald Trump called for fair burden-sharing. 
Ahead of the talks, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg briefed the press Tuesday on the agenda, stating that burden-sharing would be a priority point of discussion and that the organization's "continuous adaptation requires responsibilities to be shared fairly among allies."
During a 2014 summit in Wales, NATO members made a commitment to gradually increase defense spending to reach a target of 2 percent of GDP expenditure on defense in a decade.
In 2016, the defense spending increased by 3.8 percent, or roughly 10 billion U.S. dollars, among European NATO allies and Canada, which was "significantly higher than what we had originally foreseen," said Stotlenberg at the press briefing.
"This makes a difference but it is absolutely vital that we keep up the momentum," he added.
Currently, only five out of the 28-member organization have reached the 2-percent target, namely, Estonia, Greece, Poland, Britain and the United States. In total, 22 members saw an increase in defense budget in 2016. (Xinhua)