Ahead of the NATO Summit in Ankara, Secretary General Mark Rutte said that European allies and Canada are on track to bring their defense spending in line with that of the United States.
Washington has long criticized European allies for insufficient military spending, arguing that they have relied too heavily on the Alliance’s collective defense.
Speaking in the Turkish capital before the two-day NATO summit on July 7–8, Rutte also stressed that the Alliance “must continue to ensure that Ukraine gets what it needs,” following another deadly Russian attack on and around Kyiv on Monday that killed at least 21 people.
The Ankara summit will assess the progress of NATO’s 32 member states toward meeting the target agreed at last year’s summit in The Hague of spending 5% of GDP on defense by 2035.
With several countries only reaching the previous 2% GDP target this year, the United States has increased pressure on European allies to present credible plans for achieving the new goal within the next decade.
Rutte, who has worked to maintain close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump to preserve Alliance unity, said European allies and Canada are already investing around 4% of their GDP in defense and security. He noted that this has resulted in $258 billion in additional defense investment over the past two years.
According to Rutte, this momentum means that NATO’s other 31 member states are now “on track to match the defense spending of the United States.”
