January 12, 2025
NATO countries will be able to spend up to 5% of GDP on defense only after 10 years - Ministry of Defense of Poland thumbnail
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NATO countries will be able to spend up to 5% of GDP on defense only after 10 years – Ministry of Defense of Poland

NATO countries will be able to spend up to 5% of GDP on defense only in 10 years – Polish Ministry of Defense The Polish Minister of Defense supports the initiative to increase NATO countries’ defense spending to 5% of GDP. Warsaw already allocates 4.7% of GDP to defense and is calling on other countries to achieve this goal within 10 years.”, — write on: unn.ua

Poland supports Donald Trump’s demand to increase defense spending for NATO countries to 5% of GDP, even if it takes 10 years for some of the alliance’s lagging members. The Financial Times writes about this with reference to the Minister of Defense of Poland Władysław Kosyniak-Kamys UNN.

Details

Kosiniak-Kamysh noted that his country can become a transatlantic bridge between this goal and its implementation in Europe.

According to the defense minister, Poland is the NATO country closest to meeting the new defense spending target, as it allocated 4.7% of GDP to defense in 2024, the highest figure among members of the US-led military alliance.

Ahead of his return to the White House this month, Trump has increased pressure on NATO members to increase military spending, with only 23 of NATO’s 32 nations currently meeting the requirement to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense, with Italy and Spain falling below that threshold.

Kosiniak-Kamysh noted that the new goal is an important signal for the alliance. He believes it will take another decade to reach that goal, but stressed that Trump should not be criticized for the ambition of the goal, because otherwise some countries will continue to argue over whether more spending is really needed.

After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland doubled its defense spending and bought billions of dollars in arms, mostly from the US and South Korea.

The Minister of Defense emphasized that the Polish government had no other choice due to its geographical proximity to Russia.

NATO to reject Trump’s 5% defense spending proposal – Reuters10.01.25, 16:06 • 25971 views

Italy, whose prime minister, Georgia Maloney, has strong political ties to the incoming Trump administration, is well behind the NATO target. Her government recognizes the need to increase defense spending, but faces a debt burden and the need to limit public spending. Rome called on other EU capitals to exclude military spending from calculations of government deficits, but this call was rejected.

Spain ranks last in terms of defense spending, allocating 1.28% of GDP in 2024, according to NATO. To avoid criticism, the government emphasizes that its army is actively involved in NATO peacekeeping missions, but Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s pledge to reach 2% by 2029 appears insufficient. Caution in raising costs is due to the country’s pacifist sentiments, which are due to the history of military dictatorship.

Poland wants to use its six-month presidency of the EU, which began on January 1, to persuade other member states to spend €100 billion from the next joint budget on defense. Negotiations on the seven-year budget starting this year will be crucial.

The European Commission last year proposed a program for the defense industry worth €1.5 billion, which Kosiniak-Kamys considers to be clearly insufficient.

The minister said the EU has the ability to reallocate funds, adding that its “priority” is to secure €100 billion for defense in the coming years, including redirecting unused funds from a joint €800 billion pandemic recovery fund that expires next year.

Kosiniak-Kamys plans to present Poland’s plans on Monday during a meeting in Warsaw with colleagues from Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain. He pointed out that if they could afford to take out loans to recover from Covid, they should find funds to protect against war.

Trump wants to raise NATO defense spending to 5% of GDP21.12.24, 00:44 • 26022 views

As for the provision of Polish troops to Ukraine to ensure a possible peace agreement, Kosiniak-Kamysh rejected such a possibility, stressing that it should not be countries on the border with Ukraine. He also pointed to the need for greater NATO efforts to share the burden between countries.

Although Poland is a reliable ally of Ukraine in the fight against Russia, relations between the countries remain strained due to historical differences, cheap Ukrainian agricultural exports and growing discontent among the Polish population with Ukrainians who have moved to Poland.

The minister admitted that Polish society is tired.

Another recent point of tension is Poland’s refusal to supply Ukraine with its last MiG-29 jets, which Warsaw says are necessary for its own security.

We will remind

Earlier UNN wrote that Poland allocated almost 5% of its GDP to support Ukraine and help Ukrainian refugees, which makes it a leader among donor countries in terms of spending.

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