NATO chief eyes bigger defense budgets, hard spending target

By LORNE COOK
Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is urging the 30 member countries to commit to spending at least 2% of their gross domestic product on their defense budgets by a set date. He says that Russia’s war on Ukraine, extremist threats and security needs linked to China are eating into military spending. NATO allies agreed in 2014 to halt the spending cuts they had made after the Cold War and move toward spending 2% of GDP on their defense budgets by 2024. That pledge expires next year, and NATO is working on a new target. Stoltenberg said Wednesday that “we should move from regarding the 2% as a ceiling to toward the 2% of GDP as a floor.”