NATO Countries Likely to Commit to 5% Defense Budget, Rubio States

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said all NATO members will soon agree on a goal to raise their defense spending level to 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) over the next decade, addressing a key complaint raised by President Donald Trump about the alliance’s other members not paying a fair share.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to the media following an informal meeting of The North … More Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) foreign ministers in Antalya.

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Key Facts

In an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity on Thursday, Rubio said there had been a significant uptick in defense spending by NATO member nations ever since Trump first raised the issue in 2018.

The secretary of state said that when Trump first raised the issue in 2018, some members’ spending was less than 1% of their GDP, but this has since gone up substantially, with “virtually every member” being above 2% and “many of them” over 4% of the GDP ahead of the 2025 NATO summit in June.

By the time next month’s summit takes place, “all will have agreed on a goal of reaching 5% over the next decade,” he added.

Rubio, who was in Turkey to attend a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, said if everything materializes as planned, it will be the first time in the alliance’s history where the members have “reached targets and goals that will allow NATO partners to be more than 50 percent of the Alliance.”

What Do We Know About Nato’s 5% Spending Proposal?

AFP reported that NATO chief Mark Rutte has floated the proposal for the alliance’s 32 members to commit to spending 3.5% of their GDP on their militaries and an additional 1.5% on other security-related expenses over the next decade to address Trump’s complaints. The report said Rutte’s plan will push members to raise defense spending by 0.2 percentage points of their GDP each year over the next seven years until the 3.5% target is reached. The other 1.5% security spending is deliberately defined more loosely and could include everything from infrastructure projects, cyberdefense spending, and even support for Ukraine.

How Have Nato Members Reacted?

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul expressed support for the plan at a meeting with other NATO foreign ministers in Turkey. Wadephul told reporters that the final result of this proposal would be in line with the 5% spending Trump “considers necessary,” and “we are following him in this respect.” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot also endorsed Rutte’s plan, saying the 3.5% target was “the right amount for core defense spending.”

Key Background

Trump first raised the issue of defense spending by other NATO member states while attending the alliance’s 2018 summit during his first term. Since then, Trump has made several comments about how he wants the alliance’s members to pay their fair share if they want to be assured of U.S. support. In January, shortly before taking office, Trump told reporters that he believes NATO should set a spending target of 5% for all its members, which was significantly higher than the alliance’s 2% guideline. Trump said: “They can all afford it, but they should be at 5%, not 2%.” Ahead of this week’s NATO foreign ministers meeting in Turkey, Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, told reporters, “5% is our number. We’re asking our allies to invest in their defense like they mean it… 5% is not just a number, it is a necessity for our security. The alliance is facing significant threats.”