NATO first set its goal for members to commit at least 2 percent of their GDP to military and defense spending in 2014.
All members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are on track to commit 2 percent of their annual gross domestic product to military and defense spending, the alliance announced on Aug. 27.
The announcement marks the first time all alliance members appear on track to meet the 2 percent GDP spending goal since NATO set the target back in 2014. In the first year after the goal was set, just three members of the alliance met the commitment.
During his first term in office and on the 2024 campaign trail, President Donald Trump routinely called on other NATO member nations to meet the 2 percent spending goal, and at times referred to laggard nations as “delinquent.”
Alliance members continued to lag behind their defense spending goal until recently. NATO figures for 2023 showed that just 10 of the 32 NATO members were meeting the 2 percent target.
The majority of alliance members only reached the 2 percent target in the past year. NATO’s 2024 numbers showed that all but eight of the alliance members had met the spending commitment. The sharp uptick in spending comes as Russia’s war with Ukraine rages in its fourth year.
Just as the alliance members now appear on track to meet the goal they set 11 years ago, NATO’s military spending goal is set to increase.
In June, the alliance members endorsed a new plan—known as the Hague Summit Declaration—for members to commit 5 percent of their GDP to military and defense spending by 2035.
To fulfill this new 5 percent spending target, NATO members are expected to spend 3.5 percent of their GDP on core defense items such as troops, weapons, and equipment.
Another 1.5 percent of their GDP is to go to defending and making infrastructure accessible to their military forces, expanding their military production capabilities, and protecting critical assets such as fuel pipelines and undersea cables.
By Ryan Morgan
