NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday spoke in Lisbon, Portugal alongside the country's Prime Minister Luis Montenegro. The Portuguese prime minister pledge that his country will meet its 2% goal by 2029, but Rutte emphasized this "will not be enough".
Of course, Rutte primarily had Russia in mind when he spoke the following: "We know that the goal of 2%, now set a decade ago, will not be enough to meet the challenges of tomorrow."
"To keep NATO strong, we must, however, continue to adapt and to guarantee our security in the future, we also need to ramp up our efforts now. That also means we need to spend more on our defense," he added.
It has been confirmed that Portugal, a founding member of NATO, only spent 1.5% of its GDP on its NATO commitments in 2023.
White Rutte has been sounding a similar theme and warning since replacing Stoltenberg last year, these calls to go well beyond 2% spending will only amplify now that Trump is in office in the US, and is a reflection of Trump's own longtime insistence on much higher spending, at a bar of 5%.
The Trump effect has already borne fruit:
Lithuania and Estonia have become the first NATO members to pledge an increase in defense spending to five percent of GDP, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys and Estonian Prime Minister Kristan Michal confirmed their countries' commitment to strengthening defense capabilities in response to regional security concerns, the report said.
Newsweek and other publications have specifically cited pressure from Trump as well as preparation for his policies as the driving factor that made this happen.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys acknowledged, "Of course, there's pressure... from our main and biggest ally in NATO. We cannot ignore those messages."
But Trump's high bar of the 5% target is going to be a tall order for most NATO allies, so they can certainly expect to keep feeling the pressure over the next four years.
As we detailed previously, Trump recently proposed a more ambitious 5 percent goal, saying during a Jan. 7 press conference at Mar-a-Lago that "they can all afford it."
