The Secretary-General Mark Rutte has, ahead of the summit, warned that Russia may be ready to use military force against NATO within five years. Therefore, the defense alliance needs to quickly invest more in its defense.
The summit's big number is planned to be a new defense investment target of five percent of GDP – at least 3.5 percent should go to the military, 1.5 percent to other defense-related expenses, such as infrastructure.
Defense Minister Pål Jonson (The Moderate Party) assesses that there are good conditions for an agreement.
There is a great understanding and consensus that it is important for NATO's credibility and cohesion that they now reach five percent of GDP, he says.
Alleged to agree
According to diplomatic sources, the parties agreed to adopt the target as early as Sunday. Spain, which had resisted and refused, is said to have been given some flexibility in the wording and is exempt from the five percent target, according to Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.
The current target from 2014 means two percent of GDP for military defense. Spain is one of the countries that has not yet reached it.
However, Sweden has, which says yes to the new target, which for us would mean 70 billion kronor in increased annual defense allocations.
We want to have as ambitious a defense investment target as possible, preferably as soon as possible, says Jonson.
NATO countries will also try to agree on when the new target should be achieved. Jonson states that in the Nordic-Baltic circle, they have talked about 2030.
It's a signal to Russia and to allies that we take the security situation seriously, he says.
But there are other countries that want more time, until 2032 or 2035.
Adapted for Trump
According to information in international media, the summit has been adapted to avoid public tensions between US President Donald Trump and other NATO allies.
The five percent target was mentioned by Trump as early as last winter. However, he does not think that the US itself should need to be covered by it, reports Politico. According to NATO's Secretary-General, the target is not about giving Trump a political victory to boast about, but is what is required to meet the demands on military capability that the alliance recently decided on.
The NATO summit is also being held shorter than usual, from Tuesday evening to Wednesday afternoon, and the final declaration is expected to be only one page. It is said to avoid sensitive issues such as a future NATO membership for Ukraine.
Sweden is working to have Ukraine mentioned.
It's completely natural that we discuss support for Ukraine and what we can do together to support Ukraine, says Pål Jonson.
