BRUSSELS, Nov 21 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hopes that Allied countries will increase defense spending commitments at the Vilnius summit in the summer of 2023. The current 2024 target for NATO countries is 2% of GDP.
«We are expecting a number of important decisions at the Vilnius summit. I cannot tell you exactly what Allies will decide on defense spending commitments for the next ten years. as we are now finalizing the commitments made in 2014 until 2024 but I expect it to be an even stronger commitment to increase defense spending I expect 2% of GDP to be reached and this will not be the ceiling… Negotiations are underway , and I am absolutely sure that the ambitions will be increased, because everyone sees the need for big investments,» he said at a meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Madrid.
The NATO summit in Vilnius will be held on 11-12 July 2023.
In 2014, at the Wales summit, NATO countries pledged to strive to increase defense spending to 2% of GDP within 10 years, but the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States gave a special impetus to these efforts. On the campaign trail and after winning the election, Trump criticized NATO allies for not spending enough on defense.