Strengthening the Alliance: NATO Countries Reach Consensus on Enhanced Defense Spending Targets

NATO countries have been working towards a sharper target for defense spending. Here are some key points :
At the Wales Summit in 2014, NATO leaders agreed that within a decade, allies who are spending less than 20% of their annual defense spending will aim to increase their defense spending towards 2% of their GDP.

As of 2022, only seven of the alliance’s 30 countries met the current goal of spending 2% of GDP on defense.

Some NATO countries are pushing to raise the alliance’s defense spending benchmark from 2% to 2.5% or even 3% of member countries’ GDP, which could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in new defense spending if approved.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has urged member countries to speed up increases in defense spending, saying that the pace of increases is not high enough.

Defense spending of most NATO member states has been in sharp decline since the end of the Cold War.

In summary, while NATO countries have agreed to aim for 2% of their GDP to be spent on defense within a decade, only seven countries have met this goal as of 2022. Some countries are pushing for an even higher defense spending benchmark, but NATO’s secretary-general has urged member countries to speed up their increases in defense spending.