Latest news with #NATOLeaders
CNA
25-06-2025
- Business
- CNA
NATO Summit: NATO allies agree to spend 5% of GDP per year on defence by 2035
NATO leaders have endorsed a major new defence spending target at their summit in The Hague. Members have committed to invest 5 per cent of their GDP per year by 2035 on core defence and defence-related spending.
Washington Post
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
The Latest: NATO leaders gathering for key summit
NATO member leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump, were gathering for a summit in the Netherlands on Wednesday. They are expected to agree upon a new defense spending target of 5% of gross domestic product. But Spain announced that it wouldn't be able to reach the target by the new 2035 deadline, calling it 'unreasonable.' Belgium signaled that it wouldn't get there either, and Slovakia said it reserves the right to decide its own defense spending.
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dutch royals and NATO leaders pose for group photo at alliance's summit in The Hague
The Dutch royals and NATO leaders posed for group photo at alliance's summit in The Hague on Tuesday.
Washington Post
24-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump questions U.S. commitment to NATO defense
THE HAGUE — President Donald Trump fell short Tuesday of fully endorsing Washington's promise to defend its allies, saying of NATO nations that 'I'm committed to being their friends,' but that whether he is committed to their mutual defense 'depends on your definition.' The comments on Air Force One as Trump flew to a gathering of NATO leaders in the Netherlands unsettled some officials in the defense alliance, which during Trump's years in office has repeatedly been roiled by his mixed attitudes toward common defense. During his second term, Trump has mostly taken a gentler approach to the alliance than he did in his first term, saying that he appreciated Europe's rising defense spending. Asked whether he was committed to 'Article V,' which is NATO's security guarantee that treats an attack on one NATO nation as an attack on the alliance as a whole, Trump said that 'it depends on your definition. There's numerous definitions of Article V. You know that, right?' 'But I'm committed to being their friends. You know, I've become friends with many of those leaders, and I'm committed to helping them,' he said. Trump added: 'I'm committed to saving lives. I'm committed to life and safety. And I'm going to give you an exact definition when I get there. I just don't want to do it on the back of an airplane.' The U.S. leader and his team have generally been positive about NATO in recent months amid a military buildup in Europe following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. NATO leaders are set on Wednesday to endorse a plan pushed by Trump to boost their defense spending to 5 percent of their annual economic turnover, a significant rise from the current 2 percent target. European nations need to 'stop worrying' about the U.S. commitment to NATO so long as they hike their military spending, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said at the start of the two-day leaders' summit in The Hague, hours before Trump was set to arrive and before his comments on Air Force One. 'There is total commitment by the U.S. president and the U.S. senior leadership to NATO,' Rutte told a public forum. Still, he added, this comes with a U.S. 'expectation' that European countries and Canada 'deal with this huge irritant' that they don't spend more on their defenses. 'My message to my European colleagues is stop worrying so much. Start to make sure that you get investment plans done, that you get the industrial base open and running, that the support for Ukraine remains at a higher level,' Rutte added. 'This is what you should work on, and stop running around being worried about the U.S.,' he said. 'They are there. They are with us.' Trump also posted multiple positive comments about the defense alliance on Truth Social while on board Air Force One on Tuesday, saying that he was 'heading to NATO where, at worst, it will be a much calmer period than what I just went through with Israel and Iran. I look forward to seeing all of my very good European friends, and others. Hopefully, much will be accomplished!' Still, Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to improve relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, something that unsettles European policymakers who view the Kremlin as their principal security threat. NATO intelligence assessments are that Putin continues to believe that attacking an alliance country would be a major risk, and that he thinks security guarantees remain in place, a senior NATO official said Tuesday, briefing reporters under ground rules of anonymity. 'I don't know that Putin is really looking for a lot of nuance in definitions,' the official said. 'From his perspective he does not want war with NATO. It would not work out well for him. He knows that. And so I think that his broad confidence in Article V remains quite solid.' Ellen Francis and Natalie Allison contributed to this report.
Reuters
23-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Explainer: -What is NATO's new 5% defence spending target?
BRUSSELS, June 23 (Reuters) - NATO leaders are expected to endorse a big new defence spending target at an alliance summit in The Hague on Wednesday, as demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump. Here are some key questions and answers about the new target. They are expected to agree that NATO members should spend 5% of their economic output - or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - on core defence and broader defence and security-related investments. That's a hefty increase on the current goal of 2%, which was approved at an alliance summit in Wales in 2014. But the new target will be measured differently. NATO members will be expected to spend 3.5% of their GDP on core defence such as troops and weapons – the items currently covered by the old 2% target. They will also be expected to spend a further 1.5% of GDP on broader defence and security-related investments – such as adapting roads, bridges and ports for use by military vehicles, and on cyber-security and protecting energy pipelines. Very big for a lot of them. Twenty-two of NATO's 32 member countries spent 2% of GDP or more on defence last year. As a whole, alliance members spent 2.61% of NATO GDP on defence last year, according to a NATO estimate. But that number masks big differences in spending among members. Poland, for example, spent more than 4% of its GDP on defence, making it the biggest spender. At the other end of the spectrum, Spain spent less than 1.3%. They will be expected to meet the target by 2035. The targets could also be adjusted when they are reviewed in 2029. It's hard to say exactly how much extra cash NATO members would have to spend, not least because it will depend on the size of their economies for years to come. Also, NATO does not currently measure spending on the new broader category of defence and security-related investments – so there is no baseline measurement to go by. But NATO countries spent over $1.3 trillion on core defence in 2024, up from about a trillion a decade earlier in constant 2021 prices. If NATO states had all spent 3.5% of GDP on defence last year, that would have amounted to some $1.75 trillion. So, hitting the new targets could eventually mean spending hundreds of billions of dollars more per year, compared with current spending. Russia's continued war in Ukraine, concerns about a possible future threat from Russia, and U.S. pressure have led many European capitals to boost investment in defence and plan to increase it even further over the coming years. 'Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years,' NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said earlier this month. Europe is also preparing for the possibility that the U.S. under President Donald Trump will decide to withdraw some of its troops and capabilities from Europe. 'America can't be everywhere all the time, nor should we be,' U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said earlier this month. NATO this month agreed on new capability targets for its members – the types of troops, military units, weapons and equipment that NATO says they should possess to defend themselves and the alliance. Those targets are classified but Rutte said after they were approved that the alliance needed to invest more in areas including "air defence, fighter jets, tanks, drones, personnel, logistics and so much more". Not quite. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says his country can meet its military capability targets by spending just 2.1% of GDP. His government approved the draft summit statement with the new spending target but made clear it does not intend to spend that much. NATO officials say Sanchez does not have an opt-out - Spain's spending will be tracked and if it's not investing enough to meet the military targets, it will need to improve. Some countries that have signed up to the targets may also not meet them, diplomats and analysts expect. But publicly, they have insisted they are committed. Every NATO country will decide on its own where to find the cash to invest more in defence and how to allocate it. The European Union has moved to try to make it easier for capitals to spend on defence. The EU is allowing members to raise defence spending by 1.5% of GDP each year for four years without any disciplinary steps that would normally kick in once a national deficit is above 3% of GDP. EU ministers last month also approved the creation of a 150-billion-euro arms fund using joint EU borrowing to give loans to European countries for joint defence projects. Some European countries are pushing for EU joint borrowing to fund grants – rather than loans – for defence spending. But they have met resistance from fiscally conservative countries including Germany and The Netherlands. NATO allies dedicate a much smaller share of their economic output to defence than Russia but, taken together, they spend significantly more cash than Moscow. Russia's military spending rose by 38% in 2024, reaching an estimated $149 billion and 7.1% of GDP, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. China, the world's second-largest military spender, dedicated an estimated 1.7% of GDP to military expenditure last year, according to SIPRI. In NATO countries, defence tends to make up a small portion of national budgets. Military spending accounted for 3.2% of government spending in Italy, 3.6% in France and 8.5% in Poland in 2023, according to SIPRI data. In Russia that year, military expenditure made up nearly 19% of government spending.
