NATO asks to spend at least 2% of GDP on Defense in the face of the “great military reinforcement” due to the Russian threat

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BRUSSELS, March 15. (EUROPE PRESS) –

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday called on the members of the military alliance to increase military spending in the face of the threat posed by Russia and reach at least the 2% of GDP threshold, which NATO has been asking for years .

Given the new security scenario in Eastern Europe, Stoltenberg explained at a press conference in Brussels that the military organization is already studying an increase in its presence on the eastern flank and has warned that “large defense reinforcements will require large increases in investment.

“I ask the allies to reach a minimum of 2% of GDP. We must do more and for that we have to invest more,” assured the Norwegian politician, after assessing the announcements in this direction by NATO members such as Germany.

The debate on the increase in military spending is not new, and already at the Wales summit in 2014 the allies promised to gradually increase Defense items, but the threat posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put on the table the need to accelerate this objective and for the European allies to step up when it comes to security on the continent.

Meanwhile, Spain has indicated that it will follow the line of the commitment made with NATO to reach defense spending of 2% of GDP, although it has not clarified how many years it will take. During the summit of European Union leaders in Versailles last week, the Twenty-seven promised to increase defense spending “substantially” in view of the new scenario that Russia poses in Eastern Europe.

This same Tuesday, the Government of Pedro Sánchez has limited itself to pointing out that working on that “horizon” in “the next few years”, but has not specified when that volume of spending will be reached, despite the fact that NATO set that objective to member countries by 2024.