U.S. NATO allies increased defense spending by 20% last year
President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for higher defense spending by the alliance's 32 member states, putting pressure on Europe to take primary responsibility for its own security.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
Military spending by U.S. allies in NATO rose by 20% annually in 2025, to $574 billion. This was shown by new data on Thursday.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly called for higher defense spending by the alliance's 32 member states, pressing Europe to take primary responsibility for its own security.
With increased investment by NATO's European members and Canada, all allies now spend more than 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on military spending, a target set in 2014 for 2024, according to a NATO report.
Since then, under pressure from Trump, NATO set a new target last year: to reach 5% by 2035.
Presenting the report, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said he expected allies to "to show they are on a clear and credible path towards spending 5%" when they hold their next summit in Ankara in July.
The headline target is broken down into 3.5% for core defense spending and 1.5% for a broader range of areas such as infrastructure and cybersecurity.
The case of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania
All NATO countries increased their military spending last year, but three experienced a slight decline in the ratio of spending to their GDP.
The United States went from 3.30% in 2024 to 3.19%, the Czech Republic from 2.07% to 2.01% and Hungary from 2.21% to 2.07%.
LATEST
