NATO wants standard Defense spending to 5 percent in 2032

Secretary-General Rutte of NATO wants Member States of the alliance to achieve the increased standard of 5 percent for their defense spending in 2032. This still confidential information, Prime Minister Schoof accidentally brought out at his weekly press conference. Until now, both the percentage and the exact time path were still secret.

Reuters news agency reported last week that Rutte caught up on an increase to 5 percent. There were also reports that the percentage would fall into two parts: 3.5 percent for pure defense expenditure and 1.5 percent in spending that defenses defense, such as cyber safety or the improvement of roads and bridges.

Rutte today dismissed the circulating information at a press conference in Brussels as rumors. At the moment it is agreement that the 32 Member States of the alliance spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on the Ministry of Defense.

Rutte wrote a letter to all Member States of the alliance in which he announced that he wants to share what his plans are with the new NATO standard at the NATO summit in The Hague on 24 and 25 June.

At his press conference, the circulating percentage and the year confirmed. It seemed as if he assumed that this information was public. “As you know, the SG of NATO has written all partners a letter to achieve the use of 3.5 percent hard military expenses in 2032 and 1.5 percent with related expenses, such as infrastructure and cyber security and things like that,” said Schoof.

By increasing the defense expenditure, Rutte wants to make the NATO member states less dependent on the US. President Trump has been demanding that the standard goes to 5 percent of GDP for some time. For the Netherlands, that would mean that the government should take dozens of billions extra for the Ministry of Defense.