NATO said Thursday all member states are on track this year to meet the alliance’s longtime defense spending target of 2% of GDP, as they prepare for a more ambitious goal.
The 32-nation military alliance agreed at a June summit in the Hague to massively hike defense spending over the next decade under pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump.
The mercurial U.S. leader rammed through a commitment from allies to cough up 5% of their GDPs on security-related spending in a move seen as key to keeping him engaged with NATO.
That headline figure breaks down as 3.5% on core defense spending and 1.5% on a broader range of areas such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
The new target replaces the alliance's former military spending goal of 2% that was first set back in 2014.
NATO stated in a press release that all allies were now expected to reach that goal by 2025 and that overall defense spending across the alliance would exceed $1.5 trillion for the year.
That comes after a group of stragglers – including Spain, Belgium and Italy – hastily announced plans to reach 2% ahead of the Hague gathering.
The struggle to reach that figure highlights how difficult it will be for NATO countries in Europe to achieve Trump's far higher new target set this year.
But officials insist European countries must make good on their pledge if they are to have the capabilities needed to ward off Russia.
Numerous Western militaries and intelligence services have warned that Moscow could be ready to attack a NATO country within three to five years if the war in Ukraine ends.
Washington, which has underpinned European security since World War II, meanwhile, insists it wants to shift more of the responsibility for the continent's defenses onto European countries.
The Pentagon is currently conducting a review of its worldwide deployments and has warned it could look to scale back its footprint in Europe to focus more on China.
While some European countries have lagged behind on defense spending, NATO members close to Russia such as Poland and the Baltic states, are already set to reach 5% of GDP in the next few years.
Poland was projected to be the highest spending NATO country in 2025 at 4.48%.
The United States currently spends 3.22% of its GDP on defense, but makes up the lion's share of the alliance's total expenditure in dollar terms.
