EU commissioner: Baltics, Poland to outpace US in defence spending

Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Poland are set to surpass the United States in defence spending as a share of GDP this year, Andrius Kubilius, European Commissioner for Defence, has stated.

In a post on X, he highlighted the figures, citing newly released NATO data on military expenditure in 2026, Caliber.Az reports.

NATO published interesting data on defence spending in 2026.

Some takeaways⬇️

1. Baltics and Poland are leading in how much of GDP they are spending on defence. The USA is Nr.9.

1/3 pic.twitter.com/4zHdXOdNU0

— Andrius Kubilius (@KubiliusA) July 10, 2026

"NATO has published interesting data on defence spending in 2026. <…> Baltics and Poland are leading in how much of GDP they are spending on defence. The USA is Nr.9," Kubilius wrote.

According to NATO statistics, Lithuania will allocate 5.33% of its GDP to defence in 2026, followed by Estonia with 5.1%, Latvia with 4.92% and Poland with 4.68%.

Greece ranks fifth with defence spending equivalent to 3.65% of GDP, ahead of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

The United States is expected to spend 3.17% of its GDP on defence, amounting to roughly $1 trillion, according to NATO data.

Combined defence spending by the Baltic states and Poland, despite approaching 5% of GDP in each country, will total less than $50 billion.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov