NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance's military capability goals could require members to spend as much as 3.7 percent of GDP on defense, but that amount could be reduced if allies, among other things, jointly purchase weapons. According to NATO estimates, in 2024 Poland, in terms of the ratio to GDP, spent the most on defense of all members of the Alliance, and in 2025 according to the state budget it will be even more – almost 5 percent.
– New military capability goals resulting from NATO's internal planning process indicate that the Alliance will need more than three percent (of GDP spending – editor). These two percent are not enough, Rutte said at a European Parliament committee meeting in Brussels.
However, he added that joint purchases of weapons and equipment, as well as innovations, could reduce the amount of necessary funds allocated by each country separately. – If we subtract this (separate expenses – ed.), we do not have to achieve what we fear we need now, i.e. 3.6-3.7 percent. (Then – ed.) this number will decrease slightly, but it will be much more than two percent – he said.
Mark Rutte (right) in the European Parliament. Photo from January 13PAP/EPA/OLIVIER HOSLET
Trump wants five percent of GDP for defense
In early January, the US president-elect Donald Trump stated that NATO countries should spend five percent of their GDP on defense. Reuters comments that this is “a level that analysts say would be politically and economically impossible to achieve for almost all of the Alliance's 32 members.”
In June 2024, NATO estimated that 23 member states would achieve the current goal of spending two percent of GDP on defense by December, while nine states would fail to do so.
Poland leads in the NATO report
In 2024, NATO prepared a report on the financial outlays allocated to the military by the Alliance's member countries. It was based on data collected until the beginning of summer. According to them, estimates for Poland put expenditure at the level of 4.12 percent of GDP. This is the highest in terms of GDP among all allied countries.
According to that report, Poland also led in terms of the percentage of defense money spent on military equipment. Poland was the only country in this ranking to exceed 50 percent (accurate estimates were 51.1 percent) of the total amount allocated to defense.
Defense spending in NATO countriesMateusz Krymski/PAP
In terms of nominal value, i.e. the amounts actually spent, they are traditionally the leader United Stateswhich, according to NATO, would spend as much as USD 968 billion on the army in 2024. All other member states were to allocate a total of approximately USD 506 billion for this purpose, and all of them individually below USD 100 billion, although Germany they planned to be very close to this border, because their expenses for 2024 were estimated at USD 98 billion. It was third after the USA and Germany Great Britainwhich planned to spend USD 82 billion on defense in 2024, and the fourth – France planning USD 64 billion for this purpose.
Poland was in fifth place in NATO (fourth in Europe) with nearly USD 35 billion in planned military spending.
According to the 2025 budget, Poland's military expenditure will amount to PLN 186.6 billion (approx. USD 47 billion), or 4.7 percent of GDP. This will be another year of continuous increase in spending for this purpose. NATO countries that intended to exceed 3 percent of GDP spending on defense in 2024, according to data collected by the Alliance, are Estonia (3.48), USA (3.38), Latvia (3.15) i Greece (3.08).
Main photo source: NATO