NATO CEO Jens Stoltenberg next to Donald Trump. — © AP
About twenty NATO countries will achieve the target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense this year. Sources close to the alliance stated this, a few days after Donald Trump criticized the bad payers in Europe.
Tuesday, February 13, 2024 at 12:52 PM
The estimate, which comes from NATO, will be made public by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
NATO countries, 29 of the 31 of which are European, committed to this goal in 2006, but only 11 of them were above the 2 percent mark last year, according to an earlier estimate by the alliance.
This increase in military spending has long been demanded by the United States. Last week, former US President Donald Trump reminded this again in no uncertain terms.
Belgium
Belgium is one of the worst students when it comes to the 2 percent rule. Our country is at the bottom of the list, together with Spain and Luxembourg. According to the latest figures from the Court of Audit (in 2023), defense expenditure amounted to 1.21 percent of GDP.