Government officials presumably recognize the embarrassment that would be caused were Britain to fall short of the 2% target, so they seem to be looking for programs that can be squeezed into the Defense Department’s budget to pad spending. This is exactly the sort of behavior the UK has criticized in others: lumping all sorts of pension payments and intelligence commitments into their calculations of defense spending.
政府官员想必已经意识到英国达不到2%的目标所能带来的尴尬，因此他们在四处寻找能塞进国防部预算、以抬高开支的计划。英国过去恰恰常批评别国的类似行为：将各式养老金支付和情报经费纳入到国防开支计划。