NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has announced that the Alliance’s European members and Canada have already increased their combined defense spending to approximately 4% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Over the past year, European allies and Canada spent around 20% more on core defense than they did the previous year. Combined across 2025 and 2026, this amounts to $258 billion in additional investment, and this trend is continuing,” Rutte said.
At last year’s NATO Summit, member states agreed to raise total defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035, with 3.5% allocated to core defense investments and an additional 1.5% dedicated to defense- and security-related areas.
“In Ankara, I expect countries to present clear, concrete, and credible plans for achieving the 5% target. The data we have seen so far is impressive,” the NATO Secretary General said.
He added that, just one year into the Alliance’s 10-year defense investment program, European allies and Canada are already investing around 4% of their GDP in defense and security.
Rutte also announced that on Tuesday, during a conference with representatives of the defense industry, he will unveil tens of billions of dollars in new defense contracts.
