BERLIN, March 21. /TASS/. The NATO member states are preparing to put their economies ‘on a military track,’ Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins told Deutsche Welle (DW, designated a foreign agent media outlet in Russia).

"[The alliance] is moving in that direction," the top diplomat said when asked if NATO was moving toward a war economy. He added that since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, NATO countries have significantly increased their investments in the defense sector.

On March 14, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, presenting his annual report on NATO’s security, said that the European members of the North Atlantic Alliance and Canada will invest $470 bln in defense in 2024, amounting to 2% of their total GDP. He emphasized that the growth in NATO's military spending in 2023 was "an unprecedented 11%." According to the NATO chief, in 2024 two-thirds of NATO member countries will spend more than 2% of their respective GDPs on defense. Stoltenberg did not specify, however, which countries were included in that number.