At the NATO summit in The Hague, US President Donald Trump is expected to push allies to accept the object of memory – and at the same time insist that the United States should be exempt from the same requirement.
NATO leaders are ready to approve a significant new goal: by 2035 to assign 5% of their GDP to defense and safety, which more than doubled the current 2% reference value introduced in 2014. Trump that requires a breakthrough.
“The point is to get others to make their fair share,” Trump said before leaving Washington. “America has done enough.”
What is in the new NATO spending agreement?
A new 5% promise is divided into two parts:
3.5% of GDP for traditional defense spending – including soldiers, tanks, fighter aircraft and ammunition.
1.5% of GDP on the wider needs of national security-like is cyber defense, improvements to military infrastructure infrastructure and energy resistance.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that there would be no formal fluctuations and call the “necessary” goal in the middle of the growing threats of Russia and Iran.
Yet not all allies are on board. Spain declared the “disproportionate” goal and concluded a secondary agreement to exclude itself. Slovakia says it reserves the right to decide how it meets the goal. Trump himself claimed that the US should be liberated, although they are the biggest donor of the alliance.
Why spend a hike now?
A new goal comes at the moment of increased global instability:
- The Russian War in Ukraine entered its fourth year without supervision.
- European leaders now consider Russian aggression to be an existential threat to regional security.
- Moscow is increasingly accused of disturbing GPS, cyber attacks and sabotage operations in NATO countries.
- These hybrid threats have intensified NATO concerns, especially among Frontline countries.
- US military support for Ukraine has slowed down, and since Trump started six months ago, no new promises have been announced.
In the middle of these challenges, NATO is aimed at strengthening its discouraging force – and mitigating the fear of downloading from us.
“America cannot be everywhere all the time, nor should we be,” said US Defense Minister Pete HegSeth, signaling a pivot to greater European responsibility.
Money
Even with a place of pledge remains questions about how – and whether – allies meet 5% threshold:
Only 22 out of 32 NATO members currently spend 2% of GDP on defense.
In 2024, NATO members spent 2.61% of GDP – still far below the new goal.
A meeting of 5% stamps could mean hundreds of billions in new expenses for defense annually by 2035.
To help, the EU has created an arms fund of 150 billion euros, which provides members loans for joint military projects. However, some nations, such as Germany and the Netherlands, are opposed to common grants and create further friction in Europe.
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