NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte touted the alliance’s across-the-board 20% increase in defense spending in his annual report, announcing all allied countries met their GDP spending requirement in 2025.
“In 2025, for the first time, all Allies met the goal agreed in 2014 – to invest at least 2% of their GDP on defense. And many went much further. In fact, we saw 20% increase in what Europe and Canada spent on defense in 2025 as compared with 2024,” Rutte said on Thursday.
The report comes after President Donald Trump criticized the alliance over the United States’s disproportionate support of NATO’s defense capabilities.
In mid-2025, NATO data forecasted that all 32 member countries would hit their agreed-upon target of spending 2% of GDP on defense. Though the alliance also said that more nations would push toward a 5% target by the end of the year, Rutte did not address this in his report.
Seven NATO countries made defense contributions that exceeded 3% of GDP in 2025, according to NATO’s published 2025 annual report. In decreasing order from 4.3% to 3.19%, these countries were: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Norway, and the U.S.
Rutte said he is “proud” of the “tremendous progress” Europe and NATO allies are making in their defense spending commitments.
“For too long, European Allies and Canada were over-reliant on US military might,” Rutte said. “We did not take enough responsibility for our own security. But there has been a real shift in mindset. A collective recognition of our changed security environment.”
The 2025 report details that the U.S. allocated an estimated $838 billion on defense spending in the year, whereas the European allies and Canada spent $574 billion. In 2024, under President Joe Biden, the U.S. allocated $850 billion in defense spending, whereas European NATO countries and Canada spent $480 billion.
This marks an estimated $94 billion defense spending increase for Europe and Canada, and an estimated $12 billion decrease in defense spending for the U.S. from 2024 to 2025.
Trump, who is currently leading Operation Epic Fury against Iran with the support of Israel’s Operation Roaring Lion, hammered NATO on Thursday for the alliance’s lack of support in the war.
IRANIAN NEGOTIATORS ARE ‘BEGGING’ FOR DEAL WHILE NATO DITHERS, TRUMP SAYS
“NATO NATIONS HAVE DONE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO HELP WITH THE LUNATIC NATION, NOW MILITARILY DECIMATED, OF IRAN. THE U.S.A. NEEDS NOTHING FROM NATO, BUT ‘NEVER FORGET’ THIS VERY IMPORTANT POINT IN TIME!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Spain, which Trump has criticized for low defense spending and a country that has drawn the ire of Trump over its opposition to the Iran war, spent exactly 2% of its GDP on defense expenditures in 2025, per the NATO report.