NATO Secretary -General Mark Rutte proposed in the 32 countries of the North Atlantic Alliance to increase their expenditure in defense and security by at least 5% of their GDP in the fields of defense and security by 2032, Dutch Prime Minister Dikov said today.
Rutte “expects that, at the NATO summit” in June in The Hague, the target for defense spending will be to reach 3.5% by 2032. Another 1.5% of GDP should be allocated for safety -related costs, such as infrastructure and cyberspace.
The demand for a 5% increase in defense spending has been repeatedly raised by US President Donald Trump’s associates. This proposal was made by the NATO Secretary General about a week ago to reach the countries in the face of the next summit, which will be hosted on June 24 and 25 in The Hague.
When asked about this issue, Rutte avoided confirming the rates reported by the comin. “I will not confirm numbers (…) I have always said that if we were staying at 2% we could not defend. We must therefore increase defense spending, “he said, without further clarification.
At the end of 2024, 22 NATO countries had reached its goal of 2% in 2014. Many others, such as Italy, Spain and Belgium, are still far from this goal.
The increase in defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2032 would require a significant fiscal adjustment from these countries. It would be easier for them to approach the 1.5% target for security costs as some of them, such as the construction of transport infrastructure, are already included in this area.
