Secretary General Mark Rutte plans to propose a 5% GDP military spending target for NATO members at the upcoming summit.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced his intention to propose a new military spending target of 5% of each member state’s GDP at the alliance’s June summit in The Hague. This would significantly increase the current 2% minimum.
Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has been pushing for European NATO members to increase their defense spending, accusing them of not contributing their fair share.
NATO’s latest report indicates that ten of its 32 members are not meeting the current 2% GDP spending target, with the US remaining the largest contributor by far.
Speaking at a press conference following a NATO defense ministers meeting in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte stated that they had “agreed on an ambitious new set of capability targets,” including “air defense, fighter jets, tanks, drones, personnel, logistics and so much more.”
The NATO chief announced he “will propose an overall investment plan that would total 5% of GDP” to fund these priorities.
The plan would allocate 3.5% of each member state’s GDP to “core defense spending,” with an additional 1.5% of GDP dedicated annually to related investments like infrastructure and industry.
Responding to a reporter’s question about ensuring the plan’s long-term implementation, Rutte said member states would “commit to yearly plans showing the increase each year to make sure that you come to the new target of 5%.”
In early May, Der Spiegel reported that US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker warned member states that Trump might not attend the June summit if the 5% benchmark was not agreed upon.
Weeks earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that NATO is only valuable “as long as it’s a real defense alliance, not the United States and a bunch of junior partners that aren’t doing their fair share.”
In April, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth cautioned European NATO countries that “the time of the United States… being the sole guarantor of European security has passed.”