NATO decides five percent target for defense spending

Under the impression of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and at the urging of US President Donald Trump, NATO has undertaken to raise defense spending in an unprecedented manner. In the final declaration of their summit in the Haag, the Allies decided to invest five percent of gross domestic product in defense and security annually at the latest from 2035 – as much as since the Cold War.

So far, the goal was two percent. A drift of the alliance, feared by many feared after the election victory, is thus averted.

In return for the five percent promise, the Allies now expect that Trump will leave no doubt that the United States will also be under its leadership for assistance in accordance with Article 5 of the NATO contract. So to the agreement that an allies can count on the support of the Allies in the event of an attack and an attack on a member is evaluated as an attack on everyone.

In addition, the heads of state and government of NATO countries renew their commitment to the obligation to assist in the event of an attack on one of the member countries. “We reaffirm our irrefutable commitment to collective defense, as is anchored in Article five,” says the summit declaration with reference to the corresponding clause in the North Atlantic Treaty. “An attack on one is an attack on everyone,” it continues.

In the past, Trump had repeatedly sparked doubts as to whether the United States was still in the core agreement of the NATO contract. On Wednesday, he now described the agreement on the objective he proposed for defense spending as “enormous”.

The agreement on the defense spending specifically provides that each Member State will have to raise an amount of at least 3.5 percent of GDP in order to “cover core requirements in the defense area and to meet the NATO capacity goals”. In addition, expenses for fighting terrorism and militarily usable infrastructure will also be credited. This could be investments in railway lines, tank -compatible bridges and extended ports.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) spoke of a “historical” summit in the Hague and emphasized that Germany did not increase his defense spending on Trump, but because of the current danger situation. “Russia not only threatens Ukraine, Russia threatens the entire peace, the entire political order of our continent,” he said.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, however, admitted that such an increase in the NATO target requirement would not have come about without the pressure from Trump. This achieves something “that has not been achieved by an American president for decades,” he praised the Republican.

Rutte left uncommented that Trump was primarily able to withdraw from NATO under its leadership if the alliance partners did not deliver. Like all other Allies, the Dutch knows that the deterrent of NATO is largely based on the military skills of the United States and a US exit that could mean the end of the alliance.

The fact that the cohesion of the alliance has limits was shown in the subject of Ukraine War. Almost all Europeans in NATO are firmly on the side of Ukraine and want to increase the pressure on Russia. Trump does not want to take part so clearly and thinks that sanctions harm of his own economy.

A separate working session for the Russian attack war against Ukraine did not exist at the summit, unlike in previous years. The Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj, who was there as a guest, only had a supporting role this time. In the declaration of summit, solidarity with Ukraine is limited to the vague sentence: “The allies reaffirm their permanent national commitments to support Ukraine, whose security contributes to our security”.

As a small success, Selenskyj can book that it was stated in writing that NATO countries can have military support for his country credited to her defense spending. It was recently handled in such a way, but Ukraine feared that this could change because of Trump’s politics.

Last year, NATO of Ukraine had given an approval of 40 billion euros and promised to support them on the “irreversible path” for NATO membership. The latter wording, which is extremely important for Ukraine, has now been omitted without replacement.

It is not true that the summit participant, such as Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez or the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, that the summit could still end in a debacle. Regardless of the approval of their country, both had announced that they would not feel obliged to the new goal for defense spending.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had tried at the summit with all the strength not to make this a big topic for Trump. In a personal welcome to the Republican, he wrote that “everyone had been” signed the 5 percent commitment “. And with a view to the pressure that Trump had made on this topic, he added: “You will achieve something that no American president has achieved for decades.”

Hardly anyone wanted to speculate publicly about a possible failure in NATO. Instead, it will be planned for the next top meetings in the long term. According to the final declaration, the summit will be organized in Turkey next year, in 2027 in Albania.