When economies tanked during the COVID-19 pandemic, defense budgets looked bigger. GDP percentages are also a slippery metric. Many countries insist that it’s the quality of the equipment and the amount of contributions that allies make to NATO operations that is most important. Some members have suggested that NATO should move toward a 2.5 percent guideline. The United States spends more on its defense budget than all the other allies combined, putting 3.47 percent of GDP into its military coffers, according to NATO estimates for last year. He added that this should not be “a long-term perspective or move towards,” but rather “an immediate commitment to spend 2 percent as a minimum.” “Instead of changing the 2 percent, I think we should move from regarding the 2 percent as a ceiling to toward the 2 percent of GDP as a floor and minimum,” Stoltenberg said. Several member countries insist that the figure was only ever a guideline, and not a hard target. Thirteen spend around 1.5 percent or less. According to NATO’s most recent estimates, 10 countries are close to or above the 2 percent guideline. NATO allies in Europe and Canada increased defense spending for the eighth consecutive year in 2022, adding around $350 billion to their budgets. POLL: Support for Ukraine aid softens in U.S. So, it is obvious that we need to spend more,” he said. “There is a full-fledged war going on in in Ukraine, in Europe, and then we see the persistent threat of terrorism, and we see also the challenges that China is forcing to our security. ![]() ![]() ![]() “What is obvious is that if it was right to commit to spend 2 percent in 2014, it is even more right now because we live in a more dangerous world,” Stoltenberg told reporters, after chairing a meeting of NATO defense ministers, where a first high-level discussion on the issue was held. That pledge expires next year, and NATO is working on a new target. NATO allies agreed in 2014, after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, to halt the spending cuts they had made after the Cold War and move toward spending 2 percent of GDP on their defense budgets by 2024. BRUSSELS (AP) - NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Wednesday urged the 30 member countries to commit to spending at least 2 percent of their gross domestic product on defense by a set date, as Russia’s war on Ukraine and other threats eat into military spending.
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