NATO chief Rutte says members moving toward 5% spending target
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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed the alliance will seek to adopt a new defence spending target of five per cent of GDP at a June summit, meeting a demand by United States President Donald Trump that had originally seemed unrealistic.
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'I assume that in The Hague we will agree on a higher defence spending target of in total five per cent,' Rutte said during a televised question and answer session at the NATO parliamentary assembly in the U.S.
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Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof had mentioned this number as having been proposed by the secretary general, and Bloomberg reported the positive momentum toward reaching it. This was the first public endorsement for the target by Rutte.
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The proposal includes a 3.5 per cent target for hard defence spending and an extra 1.5 per cent for defence-related outlays such as infrastructure for military mobility. Rutte didn't not confirm the specifics but said the target for hard defences pending would be 'considerably north of three per cent' with an extra target for related spending.
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Trump first demanded allies spend five per cent earlier this year after threatening to pull out of the alliance or to only protect the allies that spent enough on defence. The figure was widely regarded as unrealistic when he first mentioned it, but European allies and Canada have come around to the understanding that their spending had to drastically increase.
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