While NATO requires members to spend at least 2% of each country’s gross domestic product on defense, several are looking to surpass that minimum and not look back.
It’s taken almost two decades for a majority of the alliance to meet that requirement, which was first agreed upon back in 2006, but the latest tallies report that 23 of the 32 members are expected to hit that threshold this year.
“Our voice has been very clear. Two percent is not enough,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said during a Tuesday event put on by Politico and WELT. “We have to go to 2.5, maybe even 3%.”
Pevkur appeared alongside Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds and Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas during the first day of the summit. The trio of Baltic defense leaders represent some of the eastern-most members of the alliance most at risk if Russia were to attack a NATO country.
He suggested that member states should try to get up to 2.5% defense spending or even up to 3%. Only five countries are expected to exceed 3% this year: Poland (4.12%), Estonia (3.43%), the United States (3.38%), Latvia (3.15%), and Greece (3.08%). Only one other country, Lithuania, is expected to spend more than 2.5% but less than 3%.
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The countries that aren’t expected to hit the 2% threshold are Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Spain.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has served as a galvanizing factor for several countries to come up with plans to meet that requirement and for some, surpass it.
“We have to keep going,” a senior NATO official told reporters on Tuesday. “I think privately, everybody would agree that everybody’s going to have to go above 2%.”
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“Those countries which don’t have plans for 2% need them,” the official added. “Those countries have plans, need to accelerate those plans and get there quicker.”
The NATO official noted that it will “take time” for the increased spending to “have an impact.”