Pentagon chief confident Nato will commit to Trump’s defence spending target
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Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte has proposed alliance members boost defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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BRUSSELS - US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on June 5 he was confident that members of the Nato alliance would sign up to US President Donald Trump’s demand for a major boost in defence spending, adding that it had to happen by a summit later in June.
The US President has said Nato allies should boost investment in defence to 5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), up from the current target of 2 per cent.
No country is yet at 5 per cent, not even the US, but Mr Hegseth said there was progress on agreeing to the target.
“I’m very encouraged by what we heard in there,” said Mr Hegseth after a morning meeting of Nato defence ministers on June 5 in Brussels.
“Countries in there are well exceeding 2 per cent and we think very close, almost near consensus, on a 5 per cent commitment to Nato.”
As he arrived at the Nato gathering earlier in the day
“We think everybody’s going to get there,” he said later, while adding that a few countries – which he did not name – were not quite there yet.
Diplomats have said European allies understand that hiking defence expenditure
“That will be a considerable extra investment,” Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters, predicting that in the Hague summit, “we will decide on a much higher spending target for all the nations in Nato”.
In a bid to meet Mr Trump’s 5 per cent goal, Mr Rutte has proposed alliance members boost defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP and commit a further 1.5 per cent to broader security-related spending, Reuters has reported.
Mr Hegseth backed that proposal on June 5.
“You got to spend to have hard power,” he said. “This alliance, we believe, in a matter of weeks, will be committing to 5 per cent: 3.5 per cent in hard military and 1.5 per cent in infrastructure and defence-related activities, that combination constitutes a real commitment.”
Spain is among countries that have shown some reluctance to agree to the 5 per cent target.
“We think that this 2 per cent is enough to meet the responsibilities we have committed to,” Spanish Defence Minister Margarita Robles said on June 5. “What is important is that each country is able to meet the objectives it has set itself.”
Capability targets
Details of the new investment plan will likely continue to be negotiated until the eve of the Nato summit.
In the meantime, Mr Rutte said he expects allies to agree on June 5 on what he called “historic” new capability targets.
The targets, which define how many troops and weapons and how much ammunition a country needs to provide to Nato, would aim to better balance defence contributions between Europe, Canada and the US and “make Nato a stronger, fairer and a more lethal alliance”, he said.
Germany will need around 50,000 to 60,000 additional active troops under the new Nato targets, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said as he arrived at the Nato meeting.
Countries remain divided over the timeline for a new pledge.
Mr Rutte has proposed reaching the 5 per cent by 2032 – a date that some eastern European states consider too distant but which some others see as too early and unrealistic given the state of current spending and industrial production levels.
Estonian Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur said that to meet the capability targets, “we need to agree on the 5 per cent in five years. We don’t have time for 10 years, we don’t have time even for seven years”.
Sweden would also like to see Nato reaching 5 per cent defence spending in 2030, Defence Minister Pal Jonson told reporters.
There is also an ongoing debate over how to define “defence-related” spending, which might include spending on cyber security and certain types of infrastructure. REUTERS
