Policy Voices | A historic NATO summit raises defence spending target to 5% of GDP

All eyes were on The Hague this week, as a historic NATO summit concluded on Wednesday with new commitments to increase defence spending. US president Donald Trump dominated the conversation and managed to do what many previous US presidents had more or less openly hoped to achieve: get the allies to pay up more. The 32 members of the alliance agreed to a steep hike in defense spending, up to 5% of GDP, but starting with a target of 3.5% by 2035. Most of that would go to armament and technology, but 1.5% of defense-related spending must also go towards improving the infrastructure needed to deploy this new technology: from roads and bridges to railroads and ports. An easy feat for budget champion Poland, but an uncomfortable target for countries like Spain or France. Our new podcast host, Sabina Șancu, sits down with two former high-ranking NATO officials to unravel the most important developments from this summit and look to the future, both within and outside the alliance. Rose Gottemoeller, former deputy secretary general of NATO and trustee of Friends of Europe, comments on the tense ‘bromance’ between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Jamie Shea is the senior fellow for peace security and defence at Friends of Europe and a former deputy assistant secretary general for emerging security challenges at NATO. Shea wonders if Trump will truly commit to upholding Article 5 of the NATO treaty, conditioned on his allies implementing the promised spending boost. If you want to comment on this episode you can send us an e-mail: [email protected]