A group of four NATO leaders and a representative from the European Union on Sunday said they agreed it was time to invest more in defense spending as Russia remains a chief security threat in Europe amid the war in Ukraine, and as Western leaders brace for the incoming Trump administration.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis argued the era of spending 2% of a nation’s GDP on defense was ‘probably history’ but he, along with the other four leaders in attendance at the North-South Summit in Lapland, Finland fell short of saying what that figure should look like.
‘We know that we need to spend more than 2%,’ Mitsotakis said. ‘But it will become very clear… once we interact with the new president, what is the figure that we will agree on within NATO.’
The summit was convened by Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, and was also attended by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
The leaders were questioned about a recent report by the Financial Times that said President-elect Donald Trump intends to push NATO to increase its defense spending requirement from 2% to 5% — a requirement that would demand all nations, including the U.S. which spends just over 3% of its GDP, to drastically increase spending on defense.
The Trump transition team did not answer Fox News Digital’s questions on whether Trump is going to be pushing all NATO nations, including the U.S., to drastically ramp up defense spending.
Instead, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team said, ‘President Trump believes European nations should meet their NATO defense spending obligations and step up their share of the burden for this conflict, as the U.S. has paid significantly more, which is not fair to our taxpayers. He will do what is necessary to restore peace and rebuild American strength and deterrence on the world stage.’
Fox News Digital also could not get clarity over whether an increase in defense spending would be supported by GOP lawmakers given the large number of conservatives in Congress, as well as his Vice President-elect, who have called for cutting U.S. aid to Ukraine, as well as last week’s internal fighting in the House among Republican lawmakers over spending disagreements.
Even as NATO leaders at the North-South Summit agreed Russia is Europe’s ‘greatest threat,’ they urged caution when it came to dealing with ‘rumors’ surrounding the incoming Trump administration.
‘I would wait to understand exactly what is the real will of the new president of the US,’ Meloni said, according to a Bloomberg report. ‘On NATO, we all know and understand that we have to do more. A lot of what we can do is up to the tools that we are able to put on the table.’
The Finnish prime minster echoed a similar sentiment and said, ‘Europe has to take greater responsibility for its own security. This means that European countries have to be strong leaders, both in the EU and in NATO.
‘[Russia] is trying to consolidate power and sow discord in Europe. The geopolitical situation is also very challenging in the Middle East and North Africa, for example,’ Orpo added, according to Euro News.
Kristersson said spending more on defense was important, in part, so that European nations were less dependent on the U.S. being ‘the main sponsor’ of the alliance’s defense, but also to show Washington that European nations do take defense ‘seriously.’
‘European countries — individually, most of us, and collectively — need to strengthen our defense. And let’s do that,’ he said.
Trump during his first administration pushed NATO leaders to meet their 2% defense spending pledge, which several did — increasing the number of allies to meet the terms of the NATO agreement from five in 2016 to nine in 2020.
But that number dropped to just six once Trump left in 2021.
By 2022, however, NATO leaders have once again began re-evaluating their defense budgets following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and by 2024, a historic number of NATO allies had met their spending agreements, with 23 out of 32 nations spending at least 2% of their GDP on defense.
Only Poland spends over 4% of its GDP on defense, while four nations spend over 3%, including Estonia, the U.S., Latvia and Greece.
Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain have yet to meet their defense spending commitments.