Fireworks could kick off during NATO’s annual summit this week, as the U.S. pushes its allies to sharply increase their defense spending to 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP).
The 5% figure is made up of 3.5% of GDP that should be spent on “pure” defense, with an extra 1.5% of GDP going to security-related infrastructure, such as cyber warfare capabilities and intelligence.
While some member states say they’re happy to hit that milestone, and some countries are not too far off that mark, others don’t even meet the 2% threshold that was agreed over a decade ago. While they might pledge to increase defense spending, whether these promises materializes will be the key question.
Talk is cheap and timelines can be vague — but concerted action is what the U.S. and President Donald Trump, who’s attending a NATO summit for the first time since 2019, will want to see.
“The U.S. is looking for everybody to say, ‘Yeah, we mean it. We have a plan. 5% is real. We’re going to get there’,” Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO and distinguished fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), said Wednesday.
