BRUSSELS, December 11. /TASS/. NATO is reportedly considering raising its military spending threshold from 2% to 3% of GDP in 2025, a move deemed necessary to meet new arms production targets among the alliance's countries, Bloomberg reported, citing sources.
The agency notes that "new concrete targets for how many more tanks, planes and other weapon systems" will be adopted at the summit in June, which "may require raising the alliance’s defense spending goal to as much as 3% of gross domestic product."
Efforts to increase defense budgets are already underway, with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stating repeatedly over the past month that 2% of GDP is "simply not enough."
During the 2016 NATO summit in Brussels, then-US President Donald Trump urged EU leaders to increase defense budgets among NATO countries. He suggested that a spending level of 4% of GDP would be appropriate.
Meanwhile, Lithuanian official Andrius Kubilius, serving as the European Commissioner for Defense and Space, has proposed issuing EU defense loan bonds worth €500 billion over the next decade to finance NATO's military needs.
Studies conducted in the EU and US between 2022 and 2023 indicate that, in the event of a non-nuclear conflict with Russia involving combat intensity similar to the ongoing military operation in Ukraine, NATO could sustain losses within 1-2 weeks comparable to its total losses during the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.
Eight years before the special military operation in Ukraine, at a 2014 summit in the UK, NATO committed to significantly increasing defense spending to 2% of GDP for all alliance members within a decade. However, the alliance has fallen short of this goal - currently, only about one-third of its 32 member countries exceed the 2% GDP threshold.