NATO countries have agreed a statement ahead of their upcoming summit that sets a target of increasing annual defence and security spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, overcoming opposition from Spain.
Source: Reuters and German press agency DPA, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Reuters sources say the statement has been approved by all 32 NATO members, but it will only become official once endorsed by leaders, including US President Donald Trump, at the summit in The Hague on Wednesday.
DPA has confirmed that NATO member states reached the agreement on the planned defence spending targets just days before the key summit in The Hague.
It is not yet known how Spain was persuaded to drop its objections.
The consensus on the 5% GDP target can be considered a victory for Donald Trump, who has been demanding for months that Allies commit to significantly boosting their defence budgets.
Spain had publicly opposed NATO’s proposal to raise defence spending to 3.5% of GDP and security-related expenditure to 1.5% of GDP.
Trump responded that "NATO’s going to have to deal with Spain."
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had sent a letter to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte urging him to consider a "more flexible formula" for defence spending.
Zefyris on June 22nd, 2025 at 21:10 UTC »
just a reminder that this is a non biding 10 years goal, that can be subject to being pushed back or modified during meetings in the following year; just like the previous agreement to 2% was pushed back 10 years later in 2014, and that most countries in NATO have only reached the 2% in 2023 or 2024, so at the very end of the new 10 year timeframe.
Unless we go into WW3 in the following decade (which we very well may, sure), this is actually extremely unlikely that more than a very few NATO member ever reach anything close to 5% once in the following decade, let alone several times achieving the goal.
mloDK on June 22nd, 2025 at 20:45 UTC »
This is the most spending Denmark be alocating to defence since the 1800’s. This is massive
Gadshill on June 22nd, 2025 at 20:26 UTC »
After several days of wrangling involving Sanchez and Rutte, officials said Spain on Sunday signed off on the pledge.
Diplomats said that language around the spending pledge in the summit's final declaration had been slightly softened from "we commit", to "allies commit".
source