Understand defense spending by NATO countries amid tensions

Foreign Ministers from NATO countries met this Thursday and Friday (21st and 22nd) in Sweden in a preparatory meeting for the leaders' summit scheduled for July. One of the main objectives of the meetings is to encourage allied countries to increase their defense and security spending.

The topic gains even more relevance in light of Donald Trump's threats to leave the alliance, on the grounds that the United States carries NATO "on its shoulders" by contributing disproportionately in relation to the other members.

On Friday's Live CNN, CNN International editor Diego Pavão presented a graph that illustrates how much NATO member countries invest in defense in their respective GDPs.

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He explains that there is no mandatory legal rule that determines how much each country must contribute to NATO. "What exists, in fact, is an informal agreement", stated Pavão. He adds that this commitment has gained "a lot of importance in recent years", especially in light of Russia's war against Ukraine.

This informal agreement establishes that member countries must invest at least 2% of their GDP in defense and security.

United States and Poland
The United States invests 3.2% of GDP in defense. In absolute numbers, this makes the country top the list, with around US$900 billion per year. Donald Trump argues that the United States, as the largest contributor to GDP, guarantees "all that social well-being that is well known in Europe."

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Among the countries that stand out most in defense investments, Poland leads proportionally to GDP, with 4.3%. Diego Pavão explained that the country "has become a great bastion of defense and security in Eastern Europe", in part because there is a war going on on the other side of its border and it also shares a border with Belarus, considered an ally of Russia.

On Thursday (21), Trump announced the sending of 5,000 US troops to Poland, contrasting with another decision from the beginning of the month, in which he withdrew the same number of soldiers from German territory.

Highlights in percentage of GDP
The Baltic countries Lithuania and Latvia also appear with high spending (4% and 3.7%, respectively), motivated by the fear of Russian territorial expansion. Latvia, which has more than 200 kilometers of border with Russia, even reintroduced compulsory military service.

The United Kingdom is one of the European countries that has increased its contribution in recent years, standing at around 2.3% of GDP, although the relationship between London and Washington has faced recent tensions, due to the British's lack of support for the war with Iran.

Below the informal agreement
Canada and Spain are below the 2% target. Canada justifies the low investment with its geographical position, further away from the direct influence of Russia. Spain, in turn, directs its defense spending to other fronts, instead of focusing on containing Russian expansion.

Pavão highlighted that, if the graph were analyzed before 2022, the numbers would be very different. "The war in Ukraine scared Europeans a lot and made countries rethink military defense spending," he said. According to him, NATO meetings and summits are essential to incite this debate.

Pavão considered, however, that the issue has more than one side to be analyzed. "The Europeans have other expenses that the United States does not have," he said. He cites, for example, the billions of dollars spent annually to receive refugees from North Africa and the Middle East and combat terrorism, as in the Spanish case.

In addition, he highlighted that, when European countries invest in security and defense, they tend to acquire weapons from the United States, financing the American arms industry and generating jobs in the North American country.

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Source: CNN