Rutte says NATO must spend smarter on defence or face bill of 3.7% of GDP

NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Monday the alliance's military capability targets may require members to spend as much as 3.7% of GDP on defence but this figure could be reduced with innovation and joint procurement.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said last week that NATO members should dedicate 5% of their GDP to defence - a level analysts said would be politically and economically impossible for almost all of the alliance’s 32 members.

NATO estimated that 23 of its members met its current goal of spending 2% of GDP in 2024.

“The 2% is not enough,” Rutte told a European Parliament committee session in Brussels.

New military capability targets emerging from NATO’s internal planning process indicate the alliance would need “north of 3%,” he said.

But he added that joint buying of weapons and equipment, as well as innovation, could reduce the amount of funding required.

“If you deduct that, you don’t have to get to what we are afraid of you would need now, which is 3.6, 3.7 (percent), so you would bring that number somewhat down, but it will be impressively more than the 2%,” he said.