Trump urges NATO to increase defense spending to 5%

Trump pushes NATO members to boost defence spending to 5% of GDP.

US President-elect Donald Trump announced that NATO members should increase their defense spending from the current minimum of 2% of GDP to 5%.

He argued that all members can afford this increase, highlighting the disparity in financial contributions between the US and Europe.

At the Vilnius Summit in 2023, NATO leaders committed to the Defense Investment Pledge, agreeing to invest at least 2% of their GDP annually on defense.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte supports this increase, stating that greater funding will be necessary to address future threats, particularly from Russia.

Rutte urged member nations to “turbocharge” defense spending to better prepare for potential conflicts.

Trump, who has been a critic of NATO in the past, is preparing for his second term in office beginning on January 20.

In related discussions, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed calls for increased NATO spending made by a member of the Green Party as impractical.

Scholz described the proposal as “half-baked” and questioned who would ultimately bear the cost of increased defense expenditures.