NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during the press conference ahead of the 2026 NATO summit in Ankara.Image: keystone
Jul 6, 2026, 4:57 p.mJul 6, 2026, 4:57 p.m
Before the NATO summit, Secretary General Mark Rutte highlighted progress made by the US allies in increasing their defense spending. The European allies and Canada are already investing around four percent of their gross domestic product in defense and security, said Rutte in Ankara.
According to information from the German Press Agency, around 2.5 percent of this includes classic defense spending and 1.5 percent for other defense-related expenses such as infrastructure. For last year, in a report published in March, Rutte reported classic defense spending for the European NATO countries and Canada amounting to 2.33 percent of gross domestic product.
The Secretary General highlighted that Europeans and Canadians spent almost 20 percent more on traditional defense last year than in the previous year. For 2025 and 2026 combined, that means an additional $258 billion.
Trump is putting pressure on
Rutte and the Europeans hope that such figures will make US President Donald Trump more conciliatory. At the end of last week, he again sharply criticized European spending and, among other things, described Germany’s investments as ridiculous.
NATO soldiers take part in a military ceremony in the Estonian-Latvian border town of Valga/Valka on June 30, 2026.Image: keystone
Chancellor Friedrich Merz rejected this and made it clear that Germany was doubling its defense spending within four years.
With the drastic increase in defense spending, the European allies are responding to Trump’s demands for fairer burden sharing, but also to Russia’s continued war of aggression against Ukraine. By significantly strengthening deterrence and defense, the aim is to make it clear to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin that an attack on a European NATO country would have no chance of success.
At the NATO summit in The Hague last year, at Trump’s urging, the allies agreed to spend five percent of gross domestic product on defense and security every year from 2035 at the latest. Of this, 3.5 percent should be classic defense spending, and another 1.5 percent could go towards infrastructure.
“Here in Ankara, I expect the nations to present clear, concrete and credible plans to achieve this five percent,” said Rutte. At the same time, he emphasized that progress could be seen just one year after the decision.
The two-day summit in Ankara begins on Tuesday. (sda/dpa)