Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Tuesday that allies are not boosting defence expenditure fast enough in the face of Russia's war in Ukraine, as the number of countries hitting a key spending target fell.
Following Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Nato members pledged to increase their defense spending to two percent of their respective Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 2024.
But the alliance's annual report, released on Tuesday, showed that only seven out of 30 member states had met that goal in 2022. This number is down from eight in 2021 and 11 in 2020. The seven countries that met the target were Greece, the United States, Lithuania, Poland, Britain, Estonia, and Latvia.
"Many Allies have announced significant defence spending increases since Russia's invasion," Stoltenberg told a press conference.
The Nato chief said that these pledges must now translate into actual expenditures. He attributed the drop in the number of countries meeting the target to stronger-than-expected economic performances, which made their defense budgets appear proportionally lower.
The United States remains the largest military spender, accounting for around 70 percent of the alliance's $1 trillion defense spending in 2022.
The US has also been urging European allies to increase their military expenditure for years, and spending across the alliance has indeed risen. European members and Canada collectively increased their defense spending by 2.2 percent of GDP in 2022, with total spending up by $350 billion since 2014.
Stoltenberg insists that more needs to be done to keep up with the increasingly dangerous global security situation. Nato is considering setting a new spending target at its July summit in Vilnius, with most members agreeing that two percent of GDP should be the minimum. However, some nations that are struggling to meet the target are reluctant to make the commitment too concrete.
Stoltenberg emphasised the importance of security as the foundation of prosperity and way of life, and Nato diplomats anticipate that the discussions around the new defense investment pledge will continue up to the summit in mid-July.
(With news agencies)
