NATO allies have started cobbling together an agreement to significantly boost defense spending in a way that may assuage U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand to spend 5% of economic output on the military.
Axar.az informs via Bloomberg, negotiators in the military alliance are making progress on a path to achieve 5% of gross domestic product on defense and defense-related spending by 2032 ahead of a NATO summit in The Hague in June, according to diplomats familiar with the matter.
NATO foreign ministers will discuss the initiative at a meeting in the Turkish resort city of Antalya Wednesday and Thursday.
The new core 3.5% target is based on ambitious new defense plans being drawn up by NATO. The alliance has distributed detailed, highly classified lists of weapons and other capabilities to member governments, which defense chiefs will discuss in Brussels on Wednesday.
The lists, known as capability targets, have been broadly accepted by allies and are likely to be signed onto at a meeting of defense ministers in Brussels in early June, according to people familiar with the discussions. That will leave formal adoption at the June 24-25 summit in The Hague.
The summit is expected to be shorter than previous gatherings and focus on spending and an industrial ramp-up, culminating in a short declaration, according to European diplomats. One diplomat said the subject will be the alliance — and not Ukraine’s future within it.
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