Who spends the most on defence in NATO?

Poland ahead of the USA

Donald Trump's controversial statements, questioning the US's fulfilment of Article 5 of NATO, echoed widely in Europe, sparking outrage and questioning whether the United States would stay a unchangeable ally for the Old Continent if the presidential election were to win – the most likely – Republican candidate.

However, in his statement, Donald Trump pointed out first of all that more than half of all 31 associate states of the Alliance did not meet the 2014 threshold of 2 percent of the GDP spent on defence. Over the last decade, the United States has borne a lion's share of NATO's costs.

During the Wednesday press conference, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Alliance Jens Stoltenberg said: “This year I anticipate 18 allies to meet the request to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence. This is another evidence and six-fold increase since 2014, as only 3 alliance countries met this goal."

Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, NATO has observed “unprecedented” increase in defence spending by 11 percent among European allies and in Canada. Additionally, since 2014, Europe and Canada have given over $600 billion in defense. According to NATO data, now all country bordering Russia or Ukraine is gathering the mark of 2 percent of GDP, sometimes with an surplus. Against this background, Poland stands out, which recorded the biggest increase in spending from 1.9 percent of GDP in 2014 to 3.9 percent of GDP in 2023, thus ahead of the US (3.49 percent).

Countries that inactive do not meet NATO targets – and there are 18 of them – include Germany (1.57 percent), the Czech Republic (1.5 percent), Canada (1.38 percent) or Turkey (1.31 percent). The last 3 are Spain (1.26 percent), Belgium (1.13 percent) and Luxembourg (0.72 percent).

At the same time, Stoltenberg emphasized clearly: “The full thought of NATO is that the attack on 1 ally causes the full Alliance to react. As long as we stick to this message together, we prevent an attack on any of our allies. So NATO's goal, the essence of NATO, is to prevent war, to preserve peace."

“Any proposition that we will not defend each other, that we will not defend ourselves, is to undermine common security, increase risk,” Stoltenberg said. He added that the U.S. knew the importance of the defence alliance and “never waged war alone.” “The crisis we are proceeding is not about NATO, but that NATO allies are not spending adequate money on NATO... The European Union cannot defend Europe. 80 percent of NATO's defence expenditure comes from NATO allies not belonging to the European Union," added the secretary-general.

Source: NATO, polon.pl