BRUSSELS — Less than two weeks before a NATO summit, Sweden and the Netherlands said Friday that they intend to increase defense spending to five per cent of their gross domestic product, in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s demands.
Trump and his NATO counterparts meet for a summit in the Netherlands on June 24-25, where they’re due to agree a new defense spending target. He insists that Europe must look after its own security, while Washington focuses on China and its own borders.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said that “Sweden will reach a new NATO spending target to five per cent of GDP, where at least 3.5 per cent of GDP will be allocated towards core defense requirements to fulfill NATO’s new capability targets.”
“We are in a specific geographical situation where we need to meet the future threats from Russia,” Kristersson told reporters in Stockholm, standing alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.
After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, NATO’s 32 allies agreed to spend at least two per cent of GDP on their military budgets. But NATO’s new plans for defending Europe and North America against a Russian attack require investment of at least three per cent.
The aim now is to raise the bar to 3.5 per cent for core defense spending on tanks, warplanes, air defense, missiles and hiring extra troops. A further 1.5 per cent would be spent on things like roads, bridges, ports and airfields so armies can deploy more quickly, as well as preparing societies for possible attack.
According to the most recent NATO figures, Sweden was estimated to have spent 2.25 per cent of its GDP on defense last year. The Netherlands spent 2.06 per cent, among 22 of the 32 allies who reached NATO’s old benchmark.
The Dutch caretaker government announced on Friday that it would increase spending on defense to 3.5 per cent of GDP in an effort to meet the five per cent goal. It’s not clear where the approximately 18 billion euros (US$20 billion) will come from.
Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans called the decision “historic” and told reporters after a Cabinet meeting that he hoped other NATO countries would also increase their spending.
“My expectation is that this will happen,” he said.
Poland and the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — have already publicly committed to five per cent, and Rutte said last week that most allies were ready to endorse the goal.
A big question still to be answered is what time frame countries will get to reach the new spending goals. A target date of 2032 was initially floated, but Rutte has said that Russia could be ready to launch an attack on NATO territory by 2030.
The United States insists that a near-term deadline must be set. But Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday that his country would get to five per cent,. but would require a decade to do so.
Molly Quell reported from The Hague, Netherlands.
Lorne Cook And Molly Quell, The Associated Press
