European allies and Canada have increased their defense spending to 4% of GDP just one year after NATO allies agreed to a 5% spending target for 2035, NATO’s Secretary-General, Mark Rutte, said Monday.
In Ankara, Turkey, the 32 NATO leaders will meet this week for a summit to take stock of their efforts to spend 3.5% of GDP on core military defense, plus another 1.5% on preparedness and security infrastructure by 2035.
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Just last week, US President Donald Trump criticized the commitment of his NATO allies, particularly regarding defense spending. However, Rutte argued that the condemnation is unfounded.
“Just one year into a ten-year project, we see that European allies and Canada are already investing around 4% of their GDP in defense and security,” Rutte said at a press conference a day before the NATO summit begins.
However, Rutte did not clarify how much of this figure applies to core defense versus other security-related items such as infrastructure.
“Here in Ankara, I expect nations to present clear, concrete, and credible plans to reach that 5% goal,” Rutte said. “We will need more forces, more resources and a much stronger industrial base.”
NATO set its new spending target of 5% of national GDPs per member following pressure from the US. Of this goal, 3.5% will be dedicated to core defense spending and 1.5% to broader security-related investments.
Experts, however, have criticized the vague definition of the new spending goal. Most of the concern surrounds the 1.5% target, since there is no clear definition of what counts towards resilience and preparedness.
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This target is currently defined as an investment to “protect our critical infrastructure, defend our networks, ensure our civil preparedness and resilience, unleash innovation, and strengthen our defense industrial base.”
Swedish security research institute SIPRI warned recently that nebulous definitions of what constitutes defense spending could lead to “creative accounting.”
A more ironclad definition might be included in this year’s summit declaration.
Last week, the European Defence Agency revealed that the EU’s core defense spending rose 20% year-on-year in 2025, reaching €418 billion. The agency estimated the EU’s defense spending will total €454 billion in 2026, which represents 2.4% of the EU’s GDP.
EU defense spending hits €418bn as joint procurement lags, EDA finds
See the original of this report by Kjeld Neubertefence here.
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