Allies must “do more” to allocate at least 2% of their GDP to defense spending and a new commitment must be set at the Vilnius summit in July, Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Tuesday.
Eleven Member States had met or exceeded this target in 2020. In 2021 there were eight and in 2022 only seven. “We expected more, but GDP has grown more than expected for some allies,” said 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, these countries’ military budgets are still down compared to 2021.
Croatia (1.91%) and France (1.89%) are just under 2%, but their defense spending is down compared to 2021.
Germany remains at 1.49% despite pledges to set up a €100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr. Belgium and Denmark also announced increases in their military spending for 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but remain below 1.5% of their GDP.
NATO countries pledged in 2014, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, to increase their defense spending to 2% of their GDP by 2024.
“Many” member states of the organization “have announced significant increases in their defense spending since the invasion of Russia. These promises must now be fulfilled because defense spending has underpinned everything we have done since 2014,” argued Jens Stoltenberg.
“We’re moving in the right direction, but not as fast as the dangerous world we live in requires,” he said.
“Of course we have to do more, and faster. At our Vilnius summit in July, I expect allies to agree on a new, more ambitious commitment and that the 2% of GDP target is a minimum, a threshold for investment in our defense,” he said.