Overview

• Secretary-General Mark Rutte said alliance leaders meeting in The Hague on June 24-25 will endorse a 5% of GDP defense spending goal
• The proposed split would earmark about 3.5% of GDP for core military capabilities and 1.5% for defense-related areas such as infrastructure and cybersecurity
• The push follows sustained pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump for greater burden-sharing and growing alarm over Russia’s aggression in Ukraine
• No ally currently meets the 5% threshold; Poland tops the list at roughly 4.7% while Lithuania and Latvia plan to hit or exceed the mark within two years
• Defense outlays vary widely across the alliance, with the United States at 3.19% of GDP and Canada lagging at 1.37% but pledging to surpass NATO’s existing 2% target by 2030