Poland names deadline for NATO members to raise military spending to 5% of GDP

NATO members will be able to fulfill the demand of US President-elect Donald Trump and raise military spending to 5% of GDP only in 10 years. This was stated by Polish Defense Minister Vladislav Kosiniak-Kamysz in an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, January 12.

"Reaching Trump's target will take another ten years, but I think he should not be criticized for setting a really ambitious target, because otherwise some countries will continue to argue about whether more spending is really needed," he said.

The minister added that Warsaw could be the "link between the transatlantic problem" created by Trump and its implementation in Europe, as Poland is a NATO member that allocates 4.7 percent of GDP to defense, the highest in the alliance.

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The Financial Times reported on December 20, 2024 that the new U.S. president will require NATO member states to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, and he plans to continue military aid to Ukraine.

The next day, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Trump's desire to ask NATO countries to increase defense spending by 5% of GDP would be a killer for Budapest. The politician noted that Hungary's achievement of the defense spending target of 2% of GDP has already required significant efforts and sacrifices.

On January 10 this year, Reuters reported that the countries of the NATO military bloc have no intention of agreeing to Trump's proposal to raise their defense spending from 2 percent to 5 percent of their gross domestic product. At the same time, a number of officials, whose names are not mentioned, although they do not support the initiative of the U.S. politician, but are generally in favor of increasing defense spending.