Germany must honour its own promises on defence spending, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg insisted Monday, as the alliance prepares to mark its 70th anniversary amid unprecedented tensions with Washington.

NATO foreign ministers meet in the US capital this week for a low-key celebration of the alliance's 1949 founding treaty, with US complaints over weak European military spending firmly on the agenda.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused NATO allies -- and economic powerhouse Germany in particular -- of freeloading on America's military muscle and reportedly threatened to "go it alone" if Europe does not step up.

All NATO allies agreed to move towards spending two percent of GDP on defence by 2024, but last month Berlin announced that its own figure was set to fall in the coming years, from 1.37 percent in 2020 to just 1.25 percent in 2023.

The news infuriated Washington, and Stoltenberg said Berlin must live up to commitments it had signed up to at a summit in 2014.

"I expect Germany to make good on the pledge Germany made together with all other NATO allies," Stoltenberg told reporters.

"I expect them to meet spending commitments, and they have submitted to NATO a national plan where they outline how Germany will increase defence spending in real terms by 80 percent over a decade."

- Germany warns not to test 'unity' -

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, speaking in New York ahead of the NATO meeting, said that Berlin had already boosted defence spending by almost 40 percent since 2014 and was one of the alliance's top troop contributors.

"We are grateful for our partnership within NATO, which has enabled us Europeans to enjoy security, stability and prosperity over the last 70 years," he told the American Council on Germany.

"But public debates about burden-sharing in NATO are generating uncertainty -- at a time when Russia is trying to test our unity again and again," he said.

"Europeans know that we need to assume greater responsibility for our security. It lies in our own interest."

In 2018, only seven of NATO's 29 member states hit the two percent target.

Stoltenberg, whose mandate as secretary general was extended by two years to 2022 last week, insists that away from Trump's fiery rhetoric, the US is fully committed to NATO, stepping up its investment of troops and resources in Europe.

And in a sign of NATO's enthusiasm to keep the US on board, Stoltenberg reiterated the alliance's plans to invest more than $260 million (232 million euros) in a facility in Poland to support US forces.

The storage and maintenance facility will allow equipment to be "pre-positioned" as part of NATO's efforts to step up its ability to counter the threat posed by Russia.

NATO, the world's biggest defence alliance
Paris (AFP) April 2, 2019 - Created 70 years ago as a safeguard against the threat of Soviet aggression, NATO is the world's biggest defence alliance, grouping 29 European and North American countries.

Here is some background about the Belgium-based organisation that formed at the start of the Cold War and then took on modern challenges such as terrorism:

- 1949: Soviet threat -

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was formed on April 4, 1949 by 12 countries alarmed by the Soviet Union's drive to spread communism around the world via military aggression.

They united "for collective defense", says the founding Washington Treaty signed by Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States.

The key Article 5 states that "an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all".

It would require other members to undertake "such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force".

Next to join were Greece and Turkey (1952), Germany (1955) and Spain (1982).

When the Soviet Union fell apart in 1991, the Alliance endured in the face of new challenges.

- 1994: combat -

In its first combat action, NATO in 1994 sent US fighter jets to stop Serbian bombing raids into Bosnia in violation of a no-fly zone. Four Serbian planes were shot down.

In 1995, a NATO peacekeeping force deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina in its first major crisis-response operation.

In 1999, a NATO force launched a 78-day bombing campaign against Serbia to end its bloody crackdown on its Kosovo province.

Serbian troops withdrew and Kosovo came under UN administration, with a 40,000-strong alliance force deployed to ensure security.

In 1999, the first ex-communist countries signed up to the alliance: the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland.

- 9/11 attacks -

NATO's "one for all and all for one" pledge was invoked for the first time after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

It joined the US "war on terrorism" in 2003, taking the lead of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) deployed to Afghanistan to root out Al Qaeda and other Islamist militants.

As the European Union expanded, so did the alliance: Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined in 2004.

The admission the same year of the three ex-Soviet states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania particularly annoyed Russia.

Albania and Croatia followed in 2010 and Montenegro in 2017.

- Piracy, trafficking -

NATO largely ended its combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, leaving behind a 16,000-strong residual force for training and counter-terrorism operations.

In 2011, it took sole command of air strikes in Libya under a UN mandate to use "all necessary measures" to protect civilians. The seven-month campaign led to the overthrow of strongman Moamer Kadhafi.

NATO now contributes to fighting piracy off the Horn of Africa and monitoring human trafficking in the Mediterranean, while also operating a unit to defend against cyberattacks.

- Still tense with Russia -

Although NATO and Russia established post-Cold War ties in 1997, relations remain tense, plummeting in 2014 over Moscow's role in Ukraine -- including its annexation of Crimea.

In 2016, NATO deployed four multinational battalions to Poland and the Baltic states to guard against possible Russian adventurism.

It was the biggest reinforcement of its collective defences since the Cold War.

In late 2018, NATO carried out its broadest military exercise since the Cold War in Norway, just several hundred kilometres (miles) from the Russian border.

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