Many NATO states will also fail to meet their defense budget targets in 2023. Hamas proposes hostage deal +++ Protests against conscription of ultra-Orthodox Jews

A large majority of NATO countries also missed the alliance’s defense spending target set in 2014, the year after the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.

According to a report presented Thursday by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, of the 31 allies, only 11 had defense spending of at least two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) last year. The other states were significantly lower in some cases.

At the bottom of the ranking are countries such as Spain (1.24 percent), Belgium (1.21 percent) and Luxembourg (1.01 percent). The NATO goal was achieved by the US, Poland, Great Britain, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary and Slovakia, as well as the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. The quota leader was Poland, with defense spending reaching 3.92 percent of GDP. The country is still ahead of the US, which reached 3.24 percent in 2023, according to the most recent calculations.

Trump risk factor

The figures are particularly explosive because of the scenario in which Donald Trump returns to the White House after the US presidential elections in November. During his term from 2017 to 2021, the Republican had repeatedly complained about what he saw as under-defense spending by European allies and at times even threatened that the US would leave the alliance. Trump recently made clear during a campaign appearance that he would not provide U.S. support to allies with low defense spending in the event of a Russian attack.

NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg has recently stepped up efforts to highlight positive developments and member states’ plans for further increases in defense spending. Presenting the report on Thursday, he pointed out that spending across Europe and Canada had increased by an “unprecedented 11 percent” by 2023 and that two-thirds of alliance partners were expected to meet the two percent target this year. “By 2024, NATO allies in Europe will invest a total of $470 billion in defense,” the Norwegian said. For the first time, this corresponds to two percent of their total GDP.

The US invests more than all its partners combined

In 2023, the US again invested approximately $876 billion, more than twice as much money in defense as all other thirty NATO partners combined, making it the absolute number one internationally.

By comparison, Russian military spending was recently estimated by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) at only about $109 billion, which, taking into account differences in purchasing power in the West, would equate to about $295 billion. China was worth $220 billion, or, adjusted for purchasing power, $408 billion. The IISS estimated the US budget at approximately $906 billion, using slightly different criteria than NATO. (saw/sda/dpa)