NATO’s Rutte says he assumes alliance will agree on 5% spending target

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Monday that he assumes alliance members will agree to a broad defence spending target of 5% of gross domestic product during a summit in The Hague next month.

"I assume that in The Hague we will agree on a high defence spend target of in total 5%," Rutte said at a meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Dayton.

"Let's say that this 5%, but I will not say what is the individual breakup, but it will be considerably north of 3% when it comes to the hard spend, and it will be also a target on defence-related spending," he added.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Rutte had proposed NATO members raise defence spending to 3.5% of their GDP, and a further 1.5% on broader security-related items to meet U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for a 5% target.

NATO aims to agree on the new targets at a summit of alliance leaders in The Hague on June 24-25.

Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said earlier this month that "Rutte has sent a letter to all NATO members to say that he expects that the commitment at the NATO summit will be 3.5% on hard military spending, to be reached in 2032, and 1.5% on related spending such as on infrastructure, cyber security, and similar things also to be reached by 2032".