As a NATO Member State, Norway plans to increase the total defense spending and wider security to five percent of its GDP, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Störe announced Friday. In his words, this expenditure goal is likely to achieve sometime after 2030. It will depend on the decisions admitted to the NATO summit, which will take place next week in the Hague, where Member States are expected to decide on a new joint commitment to spend five percent of GDP for defense. According to Reuters report, TASR reports this.
The discussion of the need to invest more in defense has intensified after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and after Donald Trump’s assessment of the US President in January this year. Trump has repeatedly shown that the US is no longer willing to be the main security guarantor in Europe, and calls on European allies to give at least five percent of GDP per year to defend.
A new NATO goal
NATO Secretary -General Mark Rutte has recently proposed the existing two percent of GDP to a total of five percent. Of this, 3.5 percent of GDP would go to military expenditure and 1.5 percent of the investment related to defense and safety. He wants states to agree on this case during the meeting of their leaders, which and will act from 24 to 25 June in the Hague.
Norway, which has a common border with Russia, plans to spend 3.5 percent of GDP on traditional defense in accordance with Rutte, which would also include the financial support of the Ukrainian army, and another 1.5 percent for wider security. Last year, Oslo was estimated to give approximately 2.2 percent of GDP in defense. In May, the government promised to spend 3.3 percent in 2025. Even in 2022, this figure was 1.4 percent.
Prime Minister Störe’s reaction
“We have to do more for the safety of our country and contribute to common security with our NATO allies,” Störe said on Friday at a press conference. “Security for Norway means having a reliable defense that has the right equipment, enough people and good plans,” he added.
Norway joined Germany or Poland, which support the goal of five percent of GDP compared to two percent set in 2014. On the contrary, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Thursday that his country would be such a “not only unreasonable but also counterproductive” commitment. He therefore proposed several possible scenarios, one of which Madrid does not engage in this plan.
In response to the Spanish question, Störe expressed the assumption that at the NATO summit in the Hague, the leaders of the Member States will strive to achieve a consensus.
