US presses NATO to agree defence spending hike

Prior to a summit in the middle of the month, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has pressed NATO members to agree to Donald Trump’s demand for a significant increase in defense spending.

The US president argued that NATO allies should increase defense spending from the current 2 percent target to 5 percent of GDP.

You must be more than just flags to be an alliance, according to the saying. You must form formations. You must have a purpose beyond conferences. Hegseth arrived for a meeting of the defense ministers in Brussels on Thursday to meet with the demands that you maintain your combat readiness.

Hegseth continued, “We’re here to continue the work that President Trump started, which is to commit to 5% defense spending across this alliance,” adding that “it must happen by the summit at The Hague later this month.”

Members of the military alliance should increase defense spending to 3.5% of GDP and commit a further 1.5% to broader security-related spending as a compromise with the new target, according to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Rutte told reporters on Wednesday that “we have to go further and we have to go faster.”

The NATO summit in The Hague will have a new defense investment plan at its heart, he added.

Meeting a 5-percent target, according to Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, will be “extremely challenging” for some European nations, including Spain, Germany, and Belgium, according to a report from Brussels.

However, Ahelbarra stated that they have decided to coordinate their military strategy, particularly when it comes to purchasing long-range missiles and training their troops to be prepared for any potential geopolitical change.

European NATO members have been steadily increasing their defense spending since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ahelbarra claimed that Russia’s continued status as the “biggest threat to stability in the region” is “concerned” by European members.

Budgetary goals for defense

According to diplomats, nations are attempting to bargain the deadlines to meet the 5-percent target.

According to Rutte, some nations believe that 2032 will be too late, while others believe that this unrealistic goal, given the current levels of industrial production and spending, is unrealistic.

Dovile Sakaliene, the minister of defense in Lithuania, argued on Wednesday that 2030 is “definitely too late” and that the target has been set for at least by 2030.

Stockholm also wants the bloc to meet its 5-percent target by 2030, according to Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson on Thursday.