The North Atlantic Council (NAC), which convened on Wednesday during the two-day Nato Summit in The Hague, the member states’ leaders agreed to spend the higher percentage annually on core defence requirements and “defence-and-security-related” expenditures by 2035, in the face of “profound security threats and challenges”, including “long-term threats posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security”.
Nato heads of state said in The Hague Summit Declaration issued after the NAC that their investments will ensure that they have the “forces, capabilities, resources, infrastructure, war fighting readiness, and resilience” required for “deterrence and defence, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security”.
It said the allies agreed that the five per cent commitment will be comprised of at least 3.5 per cent of GDP annually on “core” defence expenditure and requirements within the next decade for meeting “Nato capability targets”, and up to 1.5 per cent to “protect critical infrastructure, defend our networks, ensure our civil preparedness and resilience, unleash innovation, and strengthen our defence industrial base”.
“We reaffirm our shared commitment to rapidly expand transatlantic defence industrial cooperation and to harness emerging technology and the spirit of innovation to advance our collective security,” the declaration said. “We will work to eliminate defence trade barriers among allies and will leverage our partnerships to promote defence industrial cooperation.”
