 Photo: REUTERS/Yves Herman |
According to NATO’s statement, total defense spending by member countries will exceed 1.5 trillion USD this year, of which Spain, Belgium, and Italy, have already unveiled plans to hit the 2% threshold ahead of the alliance’s summit in The Hague.
The announcement comes in the wake of NATO’s June summit in The Hague, where leaders adopted a new target of significantly increasing defense spending over the next decade at the request of US President Trump. Under the new pledge, NATO allies committed to raising defense expenditure to 5% of GDP by 2035, with 3.5% allocated to direct military spending and 1.5% for supporting investments such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
