Over half of NATO members to miss the mark on defence spending
UK Royal Marines and US Army Green Berets during a training mission in Germany. (Photo: US Navy)
Although the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been driving military expenditure upward worldwide, only 11 out of 30 NATO countries are expected to meet or exceed the 2% mark in 2023.
A total of 63% of NATO members will not reach the 2% of GDP defence spending target in 2023 according to open data recently released by the Alliance. It estimates that only 11 countries out of 30 will meet or exceed the mark this year.
The list includes Estonia (2.73%), Finland (2.45%), Greece (3.01%), Hungary (2.43%), Latvia (2.27%), Lithuania (2.54%), Poland (3.90%), Romania (2.44%), Slovak Republic (2.03%), the UK (2.07%), and the US (3.49%).
NATO states agreed to allocate 2% of the GDP to defence expenditure in 2006 as a way to ensure the Alliance’s readiness as well as an
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