Ducking off against Russia: NATO countries agree on defense spending

A few days before the NATO summit in the Haag, the 32 alliance states have reached an agreement on the planned new target for the minimum height of national defense spending. As the German press agency learned after the end of a written decision-making process, the Allies want to clarify at the summit of increasing their annual defense-relevant expenses to at least five percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

An amount of at least 3.5 percent of GDP is to be paid to classic military spending. In addition, expenses for fighting terrorism and militarily usable infrastructure will also be credited. This could be, for example, investments in railway lines, tank -compatible bridges and extended ports. The year 2035 is said to be the deadline for the fulfillment of the new goal for defense expenditure, as shown, according to diplomats from the text for the planned declaration of closing of the NATO summit.

At the moment, the NATO target for defense spending only provides annual national expenditure of at least two percent of GDP. The reason for the now agreed increase is in particular the threats of Russia, but also the demands of US President Donald Trump that Europeans should in future take the main responsibility for conventional deterrence and defense on their continent.

In his first term, Trump had repeatedly criticized the defense spending of the European Allies inadequate and accused him of relying too much on the protection of the United States. He even threatened to exit the NATO of the United States several times. In the past few weeks it had repeatedly been said that Trump may not travel to the NATO summit if there was no agreement on the five percent goal.

Federal government is included

Germany had already taken five percent of the gross domestic product after a massive increase in the allies at a NATO Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Turkey after a massive increase in the allies. Most recently, only Spain had resisted in the NATO countries.

For numerous NATO countries, new target is a huge challenge – even if it only has to be achieved in 2035. In the past year, for example, Germany only came to a quota of around 2.1 percent, and according to Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), each percentage point would currently mean more than 45 billion euros more for Germany. At five percent, defense -relevant expenditure of 225 billion euros per year would currently be necessary. To classify: The total expenditure of the federal budget was around 466 billion euros last year.

The new goal should only be comparatively unproblematic for the United States itself and countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Greece. They are already in classic defense spending of over three percent. Last year Poland was the leader with a GDP quota of 4.1 percent. According to allies, the United States recently had a GDP quota of around 3.4 percent.

The text for the final declaration of the NATO summit for Ukraine should be sobering. According to the text that has now been agreed, her is only vaguely promised to continue support. Last year, NATO of Ukraine at the summit in Washington had guaranteed to provide security support of 40 billion euros. At that time it was also stated that her path was irreversible to membership. Because of the resistance in particular in the United States, such formulations could no longer be repeated.