Allies must “do more” for their defense according to NATO

NATO countries must “do more” to devote at least 2% of their GDP to defense spending and a new commitment will have to be set at the Vilnius summit in July, Alliance Secretary General Jens announced on Tuesday. Stoltenberg.

Eleven Member States had reached or exceeded this target in 2020. They were eight in 2021 and are down to seven in 2022. “We expected more, but GDP grew more than expected for a few allies”, explained Jens Stoltenberg during the presentation of NATO’s annual report.

The seven countries that remained members of the 2% club last year are Greece (3.46%), the United States (3.46%), Lithuania (2.47%), Poland (2.42 %), the United Kingdom (2.16%) and Estonia (2.12%). With the exception of Lithuania and Poland, the military budgets of these countries are nevertheless down compared to 2021.

Croatia (1.91%) and France (1.89%) are close to 2%, but their defense spending has fallen compared to 2021.

Germany remains at 1.49% despite the commitment to create a special fund of 100 billion euros dedicated to the Bundeswehr. Belgium and Denmark also announced an increase in their military spending in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, but remain below 1.5% of their GDP.

NATO countries committed in 2014, after the annexation of Crimea by Russia, to increase their defense spending to 2% of their GDP in 2024.

“Many” member states of the organization “have announced significant increases in their defense spending since the invasion of Russia. These promises must now come to fruition, because defense spending has underpinned everything we have done since 2014,” argued Jens Stoltenberg.

“We are moving in the right direction, but not as fast as the dangerous world we live in requires,” he insisted.

“Obviously we need to do more and do it faster. At our summit in Vilnius in July, I expect the allies to agree on a new, more ambitious commitment and that the objective of 2% of GDP is a minimum, a threshold to invest in our defence”, a- he said.

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