Brussels — US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday he was confident that Nato members would sign up to US President Donald Trump’s demand for a major boost in defence spending, adding that it had to happen by a summit later in June.
The US president has for months said he wants Nato allies to boost investment in defence to 5% of GDP, up from the current target of 2%. No country is yet at 5%, not even the US, but Hegseth said there was progress on agreeing to the target.
“I’m very encouraged by what we heard in there,” Hegseth said after a morning meeting of Nato defence ministers on Thursday in Brussels. “Countries in there are well exceeding 2% and we think very close, almost near consensus, on a 5% commitment to Nato.”
As he arrived at the Nato gathering earlier in the day, Hegseth said such a commitment by all Nato members to spend 5% of GDP on defence had to happen by the June 24-25 summit of Nato leaders.
“We think everybody’s gonna get there,” he said later, while adding that a few countries — which he did not name — were not quite there yet.
Extra investment
Diplomats have said European allies understand that hiking defence expenditure is the price of ensuring a continued US commitment to the continent’s security and that keeping the US on board means allowing Trump to be able to declare a win on his 5% demand during The Hague summit.
“That will be a considerable extra investment,” Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte told reporters, predicting that in The Hague summit “we will decide on a much higher spending target for all the nations in Nato”.
In a bid to meet Trump’s 5% goal, Rutte has proposed alliance members boost defence spending to 3.5% of GDP and commit a further 1.5% to broader security-related spending.
Hegseth backed that proposal on Thursday. “You got to spend to have hard power,” he said. “This alliance, we believe, in a matter of weeks, will be committing to 5%: 3.5% in hard military and 1.5% in infrastructure and defence-related activities, that combination constitutes a real commitment.”
Spain is among countries that have shown some reluctance to agree to the 5% target.
“We think that this 2% is enough to meet the responsibilities we have committed to,” Spanish defence minister Margarita Robles said on Thursday. “What is important is that each country is able to meet the objectives it has set itself.”
Divisions
Details of the new investment plan are likely to continue to be negotiated until the eve of the Nato summit.
In the meantime, Rutte said he expects allies to agree on Thursday on what he called “historic” new capability targets. The targets, which define how many troops and weapons and how much ammunition a country needs to provide to Nato, would aim to better balance defence contributions between Europe, Canada, and the US, he said.
Germany will need about 50,000 to 60,000 additional active troops under the new Nato targets, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said as he arrived at the Nato meeting.
Countries remain divided over the timeline for new pledges.
Rutte has proposed reaching the 5% defence target by 2032 — a date that some Eastern European states consider too distant but which some others view as too early, given current spending and industrial production levels.
Estonian defence minister Hanno Pevkur said to meet the capability targets, “we need to agree on the 5% in five years. We don’t have time for 10 years, we don’t have time even for seven years.”
Sweden would also like to view Nato reaching 5% defence spending in 2030, defence minister Pal Jonson said.
There is an ongoing debate over how to define “defence-related” spending, which might include spending on cybersecurity and certain types of infrastructure. Reuters
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