NATO chief hopes that allied countries will agree a general target of 5% of GDP for defense

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Monday that the Alliance Member States will be expected to arrive next month, at the Hague Summit, to an agreement on a 5% defense lens, according to Reuters.

“I suppose that in The Hague we will agree on a high objective of defense expenses, 5% in total,” Rutte said at a meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly held in Dayton, USA.

Rutte said that this objective will not be divided into categories, but that a significant part of these expenses, “much over 3%”, will go to the strictly military defense. The rest will cover related fields, such as infrastructure, cyber security or other relevant components.

“Let's say that this 5% – without going into details on exact distribution – will mean, however, much over 3% when we talk about direct defense expenses, and will also include an objective related to other defense expenses,” Rutte added.

Reuters reported at the beginning of May that Rutte proposed to NATO member states to increase defense expenses to 3.5% of GDP, and to allocate more 1.5% for larger security fields, to respond to US President Donald Trump's request for a total threshold of 5%.

NATO intends to reach an agreement on these new objectives at the summit of the alliance leaders to take place in The Hague, June 24-25.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said, this month, that “Rutte sent a letter to all NATO members stating that the summite commitment is expected to be 3.5% for direct military expenses, to be achieved by 2032, and 1.5% for related expenses, such as infrastructure, cyber security and the other,”