As NATO members prepare for their summit in The Hague next week, Secretary General Mark Rutte announced that the alliance has already achieved its defense spending targets agreed upon 11 years ago, DPA reported, quoted by BTA.
After Portugal and Canada also committed to spending 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense this year, the entire NATO alliance is now meeting the 2% target, Rutte said on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Canada. He called it "really great news".
But with pressure mounting from US President Donald Trump to spend more, the 32-member defence alliance is expected to agree on a new target of at least 3.5% of national GDP at its two-day summit starting on June 24. An additional 1.5% would have to be set aside for additional defence-related spending such as infrastructure, bringing the overall target to 5%, which Trump has been advocating for for some time.
The US president has repeatedly criticised what he sees as insufficient defence spending by European allies and Canada, and has even threatened on several occasions to withdraw the US from NATO over it.
The only NATO member to exceed 3.5% of defence spending as a share of GDP is Poland.