"Many NATO members support Trump's demand" - Rutte urges allies to spend 5% of GDP on defense
Most of the US's NATO allies have supported US President Donald Trump's demand that they invest 5% of GDP in the defense sector, the alliance's Secretary General Mark Rutte said.
European allies and Canada have invested heavily in their armed forces, in weapons and ammunition, since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
At the same time, some countries have resisted US demands to invest 5% of GDP in defense; 3.5% in core military spending and 1.5% in roads, bridges, airports and ports, needed to accelerate the deployment of armies.
In 2023, as Russia's war in Ukraine entered its second year, NATO leaders agreed to spend at least 2% of GDP on national defense budgets.
So far, 22 of the 32 member states have achieved this, while others are still struggling to meet the target. Trump and his NATO counterparts are expected to endorse the new goal at a summit in The Hague on June 24-25.
The American leader insists that US allies spend at least 5% so that America can focus on security priorities elsewhere, primarily in the Indo-Pacific region and on its own borders.
The new target would include a 1.5% increase on the current 2% target for defense budgets. The United States spends far more than any other ally in monetary terms. But according to the latest NATO figures, the superpower was estimated to have spent 3.19% of GDP in 2024, down from 3.68% a decade earlier. It is the only ally whose spending has fallen since 2014.
While the two new figures add up to 5%, the inclusion of investments in civilian infrastructure to facilitate the movement of armies changes the traditional way NATO calculates defense costs.
The seven-year timeframe is also short by the alliance's usual standards. The much more modest 2% target, set after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014, was meant to be achieved over a decade.
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