NATO members agreed Sunday to raise their defense spending target to 5% of GDP by 2035, responding to U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-standing call for Europe to share more of the defense burden.
Under the new framework, member states are required to allocate at least 3.5% of their GDP to core military needs such as personnel, equipment, and operations. An additional 1.5% can be directed toward related expenses, including cybersecurity and infrastructure that facilitates military mobility. The deadline to meet the 5% spending level is set for 2035.
Meanwhile, NATO granted Spain an exemption from the 5% target after the country, the alliance’s lowest defense spender in 2024 at 1.24% of GDP, opposed the increase. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez described the raise as “unacceptable” and “incompatible with our worldview.”
“Spain will not spend 5% of its GDP on defense,” Sánchez said in a televised address. “But our role in NATO remains unchanged.”
Spain committed instead to spending 2.1% of GDP on defense, meeting NATO’s core military requirement.
NATO’s decision comes after Trump criticized Spain’s low defense contributions last week, saying it “has to pay what everybody else has to pay.”
However, he also implied that the U.S. should be exempt from the new target, citing the substantial and prolonged investment Washington has made to protect Europe. According to NATO, the U.S. spent an estimated 3.19% of its GDP on defense in 2024.
The new spending goal will be formalized during the NATO summit beginning Tuesday in The Hague.
