NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Monday (June 17) that this year more than 20 NATO member countries are set to meet the agreed defense spending target, which requires allocating at least 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) towards defense.
According to Reuters, Stoltenberg, speaking at the Wilson Center in the United States, stated that the number of NATO alliance members meeting the defense spending requirement has significantly increased. Just five years ago, fewer than ten member countries were able to achieve this goal.
“I can now reveal that this year more than 20 member countries will allocate at least 2% of their GDP to defense,” said the NATO leader.
“This is beneficial for both Europe and the United States, especially because most of this additional funding is spent here in the United States,” he added, noting that over the past two years, more than two-thirds of Europe’s defense procurement (over $140 billion) came from American companies.
Stoltenberg is currently in Washington preparing for the NATO summit scheduled to take place in the US capital next month. He met with US President Biden later on Monday.
When NATO leaders set the 2% of GDP defense spending goal at the 2014 summit, only three member countries – the US, Greece, and the UK – had achieved this target, Stoltenberg noted.
NATO had 28 member countries at that time, and now it has 32.
In recent years, NATO’s defense spending has been a subject of controversy, particularly following former US President Trump’s accusations that Europeans were spending too little on their own security and relying on American protection.
However, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, defense spending in many European countries has sharply increased.
Stoltenberg emphasized that defense spending would be the main topic of discussion at the NATO summit in Washington next month, followed by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Stoltenberg stated that China has been providing crucial support to Russia while also attempting to maintain good relations with the West, but “Beijing cannot have its cake and eat it too.”
“Unless China changes its course, allies will need to increase costs,” he said.