Nato member states have committed to boosting investments in defence to 5 per cent of their domestic output, largely endorsing US President Donald Trump’s pressure on Washington’s European allies.
The North Atlantic Council (NAC), which convened on Wednesday during the two-day Nato summit in The Hague, the member states’ leaders agreed to spend the higher percentage annually on core defence requirements and “defence-and-security-related” expenditures by 2035, in the face of “profound security threats and challenges”, including “long-term threats posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security”.
Nato heads of state said in The Hague Summit Declaration issued after the NAC that their investments would ensure that they have the “forces, capabilities, resources, infrastructure, war fighting readiness, and resilience” required for “deterrence and defence, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security”.
It said the allies agreed that the 5 per cent commitment would be comprised of at least 3.5 per cent of GDP annually on “core” defence expenditure and requirements within the next decade for meeting “Nato capability targets”, and up to 1.5 per cent to “protect critical infrastructure, defend our networks, ensure our civil preparedness and resilience, unleash innovation, and strengthen our defence industrial base”.
“We reaffirm our shared commitment to rapidly expand transatlantic defence industrial cooperation and to harness emerging technology and the spirit of innovation to advance our collective security,” the declaration said. “We will work to eliminate defence trade barriers among allies and will leverage our partnerships to promote defence industrial cooperation.”
The pledge added that the alliance would “reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine”, and their “ironclad commitment to collective defence as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty – that an attack on one is an attack on all”.
“Almost all [Nato members] are going to contribute now 5 per cent – a number that people are surprised at, but you need it today,” Trump said at a press briefing after the summit. “The United States accounts for two-thirds of all Nato defence spending. Since I began pushing for additional commitments in 2017, believe it or not, our allies have increased spending by US$700 billion.”
Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters that the summit “laid the foundations for stronger, fairer and more lethal Nato”, through the new investment plan that could “fuel a quantum leap” in their collective defence.
“Should anyone make the mistake of attack, allies recognise the severity of the threats we face, and in response, they have come together to agree on an ambitious but essential new defence spending commitment,” Rutte said.
“Our decisions today show that from the Mediterranean to the Arctic, from the rest of North America to our eastern flank, all allies are united in understanding that we need to step up to stay safe, and they are active.”
Addressing concerns about the Trump administration’s commitment to defend Nato allies, Rutte stated the US president had been “clear” that America was “committed to Nato”, a pledge they “affirmed again on Wednesday in no uncertain terms”.
The 5 per cent defence spending goal originated with the Trump administration’s pressure on European Nato allies, leading to a shift from the initial 2 per cent benchmark agreed in 2014.
The benchmark was agreed on a compromise text on Sunday between the representatives of each Nato member state before the summit.
Rutte said he believed Spain, a holdout on the defence spending commitment, would be convinced to work towards it.
Citing budgetary constraints, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that his country would not be able to increase defence spending, claiming that Madrid only had to spend 2.1 per cent of GDP to meet Nato’s core military requirements.
In his briefing, Trump threatened to double US import tariffs on Spanish goods if Madrid did not work to meet the new Nato target.
“We’re going to make them pay twice as much. And I’m actually serious about that,” Trump said.
Nato officials, including Rutte, have claimed that a significant increase in defence spending was necessary to counter an increasing Russian threat demonstrated by its war against Ukraine, and to allow Europe to take on more responsibility for its own security as the US shifts its military focus to China.
Rutte said in the opening remarks at the NAC that “assertive grouping of adversaries” seeks to divide and challenge Nato, as well as increasing other “serious” security threats, calling the alliance to stand together and that the “adversaries” know it is a “winning combination” for North America and Europe working together.
He asserted that the US carried “too much” weight in commitments to protect the alliance “for too long”, and praised Trump’s leadership for making such a change in defence burden sharing possible.
According to Rutte, the Nato member states lagging on defence spending would not have reached the goal of 2 per cent of GDP if Trump had not been elected president, adding that the proposed defence spending goal was “doable” and that he was “optimistic” that it would be achieved.
“Seven to eight countries at the start of this year were not at 2 per cent. They will now reach 2 per cent this year. Many countries said ‘we will do it somewhere in the 2030s’, but now they are committed to do it by this year,” Rutte said.
“Countries have to find money, it’s not easy. These are political decisions. I totally recognise that. But at the same time, there is absolute conviction with colleagues at the table, that given those threats from Russians, given the international security situation, there is no alternative. We’ve got to do this.”
Rutte also addressed the gushing “Dear Donald” private message he sent to Trump this week, which the US president posted on social media.
In it, Rutte said Trump was “flying into another big success” at Nato after his “decisive action in Iran”.
Rutte confirmed that the text message was a “statement of fact” and that it was “absolutely fine” that Trump shared it online.
This exchange took place amid renewed concerns over Trump’s stance on the alliance’s core principles.
The US president had previously claimed that Nato member states failing to meet a proposed 5 per cent defence target might not benefit from US protection under Article 5.
En route to this week’s summit, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that there were “numerous definitions” of Article 5, fuelling uncertainty about whether the US would defend European members under attack, though he added he was “committed to saving lives”.
On these remarks, Rutte said before Wednesday’s summit that the US was “totally committed to Nato, totally committed to Article 5”, and that equalising defence spending among the European Nato member states as much as Washington was “fair”, repeating his remarks from the first day of the summit on Tuesday that Europe must “stop worrying about the US”.
The meeting between Trump and Rutte also took place in the morning on Wednesday, where the US president said “we’re with them all the way” and the increase of defence spending to 5 per cent of GDP would make Nato stronger. - SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
