NATO launches the debate on investment in defense with Trump’s demand on the table to spend 5%

The NATO defense ministers meet this Thursday in Brussels in an appoint Defense will exceed 3% of GDP and the United States insist on reaching 5%.

The situation in Ukraine, where the allies will have to commit in the long term with the security of the country, and the urgency generated by Donald Trump’s return to the White House makes the discussion between allies to agree on a new commitment fuck temperature, every time The new spending objective is expected for the NATO leaders summit in the Hague in the end of June. In the background there is the need for the alliance to renew the objective of 2% agreed in 2014, which today turns 23 of the 32 allies, with Spain to the tail with 1.28%.

While Rutte values ​​the effort to raise the defense budget after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, he insists that the bar marked so far is insufficient in the face of military needs and “too large” deficiencies of European armies.

To the political urgency that Trump prints with his demand to spend 5% in defense, the NATO internal evaluation exercise is added to renew the objectives of military capacities that allies must meet.

On Wednesday Rutte has stressed that the new commitment is reached “sooner rather than later” and a “credible calendar” is set so that it does not happen as in 2014 when the allies promised to spend 2% but then the investment until after a few years. “That is simply unacceptable. And not because only President Trump asks us, but because we have to defend ourselves,” he said.

Military objectives 30% higher

Background is the new minimum levels of military resources that NATO will set. A high allied position advances that these objectives are one third above the previous ones, of 2021, which translates into greater military demand in view that they are linked to concrete defense plans to respond to security threats.

“The collective defense entails a cost in resources and is reflected in the level of ambition we face now. So we are probably 30% above what we were in the last cycle,” explains this high position, indicating that Many of NATO members do not meet the previous objectives, so they must make a “significant” effort in military investment to “catch up and meet the new demands.”

All voices in NATO barracks warn that the 2% bar is expired and does not conform to the present and future needs of euroatlántic security. “In most cases, 2% just enough to achieve the old capacity objectives, so we have already exceeded that point and we hope that countries, if they want to fulfill their commitments, spend much more than they spend At present, “says the allied fountain.

Spain at the tail of the NATO spending

In contrast to the United States, Poland or the Baltic, the most enthusiastic allies with military spending, Spain is in the queue in NATO and together with Italy, Canada, Belgium or Luxembourg is far from the minimum expenditure figure agreed between allies .

Despite being Farolillo Rojo, the government insists on its plans to reach the 2% threshold in military spending in 2029, it rules out accelerating the investment path and is skeptical with the 3% bar. The Executive points to other large countries such as Italy or France, which will not achieve that goal, and points out that Germany reaches just the bar of 2%, so it focuses on the attention to a language of commitment that is acceptable for countries to the tail in military spending.

Among the negotiation elements to form the new spending horizon is how defense spending is counted, on which there are no unified criteria in NATO, as well as the destination of investments to ensure that it is in capacities and not current expenses or An adequate consideration of the resources dedicated to the anti -terrorism struggle or the contribution to missions and operations, a field in which Spain stands out with a medium dozen presence.

As another source within NATO synthesizes, 3% is a “very likely” figure, but it will be difficult to reach a consensus among the 32 members of the organization, while pointing to the deadline to fulfill the new commitment or metric for Reach the objective as variables that countries will handle to close an agreement at the end of June.

Situation in Ukraine

Apart from the question of spending, the appointment is marked by Trump’s announcement that “immediate” negotiations will begin with Russian President Vladimir Putin, to end the conflict. This news has been known after the United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, has advanced in Brussels before NATO allies that the Trump administration does not believe “realistic” some of Ukraine’s demands, such as their adhesion to the NATO or return to the 2014 borders for a negotiated exit to a war that is about to turn three years.

“The United States does not believe that the entry of Ukraine into NATO is realistic for a negotiated agreement,” said Hegesh in his speech at the meeting of the contact group on Ukraine in his first exchange with his NATO counterparts and the minister of Ukrainian Defense, Rustem Uumerov.

Until now the line in the military organization went through militarily reinforcing Ukraine to improve its position against possible negotiations, which were asked to give a “fair and lasting” peace to deter future Putin attacks.

“Whatever comes out of those conversations and when it will happen, we have to be collectively safe and collectively guarantee that what comes out of them is durable, so that what happened with the Minsk agreement in 2014 is not repeated,” he Warned Routte, who in any case has avoided referring to kyiv’s euroatlant integration claiming that this aspect is part of future conversations in the alliance and probably with the Russian president.