European allies and Canada have increased their defense spending to 4% of GDP just one year after NATO allies agreed to a 5% spending target for 2035, NATO’s Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, said Monday.In Ankara, Turkey, the 32 NATO leaders will meet this week for a summit to take stock of their efforts to spend 3.5% of GDP on core military defense, plus another 1.5% on preparedness and security infrastructure by 2035.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Just last week, US President Donald Trump criticized the commitment of his NATO allies, particularly regarding defense spending. However, Rutte argued that the condemnation is unfounded.“Just one year into a ten-year project, we see that European allies and Canada are already investing around 4% of their GDP in defense and security,” Rutte said at a press conference a day before the NATO summit begins.However, Rutte did not clarify how much of this figure applies to core defense versus other security-related items such as infrastructure.“Here in Ankara, I expect nations to present clear, concrete, and credible plans to reach that 5% goal,” Rutte said. “We will need more forces, more resources and a much stronger industrial base.”NATO set its new spending target of 5% of national GDPs per member following pressure from the US. Of this goal, 3.5% will be dedicated to core defense spending and 1.5% to broader security-related investments.Experts, however, have criticized the vague definition of the new spending goal. Most of the concern surrounds the 1.5% target, since there is no clear definition of what counts towards resilience and preparedness.