Members of the Western NATO military alliance reportedly agreed to increasing defence spending to five per cent of GDP within the next decade in a major victory for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has long demanded that America’s allies pay more for their defence.
Ahead of the NATO summit this week at The Hague in the Netherlands, members agreed in principle to increasing individual nation-state defence spending to five per cent of GDP by the year 2035 at the latest, German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported. The figure would be the first time NATO has set itself a formalised, increased spending floor since the two per cent agreed on at the Cardiff summit in 2014.
Even over a decade later now a considerable number of NATO members still don’t hit that two per cent, though, including Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, and Spain.
Nevertheless the new deal, which came in the wake of pressure from the Trump administration, stipulates that at least 3.5 per cent of GDP must be spent directly on military needs, while the additional 1.5 per cent can be devoted to related defence costs.
While socialist-run Spain had initially threatened to block the agreement, Madrid is said to have dropped such plans after securing an exemption from the new spending target.
Spain has frequently failed to meet the current NATO spending obligations of 2 per cent of GDP, including last year, when it ranked dead last among all NATO members having spent just 1.28 per cent of its GDP on defence.
Embattled Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said that the scale of the expected military investment is “disproportionate and unnecessary,” while openly declaring that his nation would not abide by requirement.
In contrast, Poland, long one of the top contributors in Europe, committed earlier this year to reaching the five per cent threshold, after having already surpassed four per cent last year amid growing concern over Russian aggression in Eastern Europe.
The reported move by NATO to collectively agree to increasing defence spending to five per cent will represent a significant victory for U.S. President Donald Trump.
Dating back to his first term in the White House, President Trump was openly critical of prosperous European nations leaning on American might and wealth to subsidise their defence.
A particular punching bag for the American leader was Germany, which he frequently lambasted for failing to meet their NATO defence spending commitments while being the richest country in Europe and while forking over billions to Moscow in exchange for Russian natural gas.
In 2018, then-President Trump accused Germany and others of being “captive” to Russia, paying Moscow billions in exchange for natural gas, as they demanded American protection from Putin.
While figures within the liberal political establishment and legacy media often attempted to cast Trump’s approach as alienating other Western allies, his novel tactics were later credited for increasing NATO power.
In 2019, then-NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that President Trump’s hardline methods were critical in securing an additional $100 billion in spending from NATO allies.
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