NATO’s European members discuss 3% target for defence spending

European NATO members are holding talks about increasing the alliance’s target for defense spending to 3 percent of GDP at its annual summit next June partly in anticipation of Donald Trump’s return as US president, Report informs via the Financial Times.

Four people involved in the preliminary talks told the Financial Times they were discussing the steep rise from 2 percent of GDP, a move that would put intense pressure on already strained national budgets and that has raised misgivings in many capitals. Of NATO’s 32 members, 23 will reach the existing 2 percent target this year, according to alliance calculations, up from six in 2018. However, this also means that seven European members, including Italy and Spain, are still failing to meet a benchmark agreed a decade ago.

However, Trump’s demand that Europe should pay more for its own defense, and a realization that current spending levels are not enough to support Ukraine and to deter Russia, has forced capitals to take on board the scale of the under-investment. The confidential talks, which began during a meeting of alliance foreign ministers last week and could yet fail to reach full agreement, envisage a short-term pledge to hit 2.5 percent and, by 2030, a target of 3 percent, three of the people said. The new commitments would be formally agreed at next year’s summit in the Netherlands. Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary-general, declined to comment when asked about setting a new target, but said he would push for it to be “much more” than the existing benchmark. “I have a number in my mind, but I’m not going to mention it now. But clearly, when you look at the capability targets, [when] you look at the gaps still there . . . It is clear that, with 2 percent, you cannot get there,” he told the FT this month.

Rutte said it would be “good” to agree a new target at the Hague summit, despite fiscal pressures in Europe that have toppled the German and French governments in the past two months. “Politics is making choices in scarcity and there’s always a lack of money and always too many priorities,” he said, adding that keeping a country “safe” should be a critical priority for leaders. During Trump’s first presidency, he used NATO’s 2018 summit to demand more spending or risk the US leaving the alliance. Leaders, including Rutte as Dutch premier, pledged to speed up spending increases to meet 2 percent. However, the surge in spending came only in response to Russia’s war against Ukraine. The alliance’s non-US members have collectively raised spending by around $100bn over the past two years. “With all the tasks facing us, in terms of the defense of Ukraine and NATO’s minimum capability requirements, this discussion is going to come, whatever happens,” a German official said. “And the next Nato summit would be the perfect time for it.” A commitment to 3 percent would also be a “good signal to the US and to Trump”, the official said. Germany met the 2 percent target this year for the first time.