Polish minister predicts 10-year timeline for NATO’s military spending boost

Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak has said that NATO member states will need about ten years to meet US President-elect Donald Trump's demand to increase military spending to five per cent of GDP.

He remarked that it would take another decade to meet Trump's demands, but he believed that Trump should not be criticized for setting such an ambitious goal, as otherwise, some countries would continue to debate whether it was truly necessary to incur additional military expenses, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

The minister also emphasized that Poland needs to explore additional ways to increase defense spending. He pointed out that if the country could afford to take on debt to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, it should certainly be able to find the necessary funds to protect itself from war.

Earlier, Trump announced his intention to push for NATO member states to increase military spending to five per cent of their GDP. 

“I don’t think it will be 5 [percent], which at this time would be impossible for almost all the nations in the world,” Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said in the Italian parliament.

Italy plans to allocate 1.57 percent of its GDP to defense this year, with a goal of reaching 2 percent by 2028. However, Trump is demanding more funding, and he wants it quickly.

"Europe is in for a tiny fraction of the money that we’re in [for]," Trump remarked during an event at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. "We have a thing called the ocean in between us, right? Why are we in for billions and billions of dollars more money than Europe?"

A 5-percent target would surpass what any NATO member currently spends. Last year, the US allocated 3.4 per cent of its GDP to defense. Poland, which spends 4.12 per cent in 2024, plans to raise that to 4.7 percent this year. Military spending tends to increase the closer a country is to Russia, with the three Baltic states significantly ramping up their defense budgets.

By Naila Huseynova