NATO reports surge in Europe, Canada defense spending

Europe and Canada had a 20 percent surge in defense spending in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to the annual report by NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who said the alliance has “started a new chapter.” 

“We took big decisions and decisive action to defend the Alliance, protect our way of life, and keep one billion people safe on both sides of the Atlantic,” he wrote in the report’s foreword, which named Russia as the most significant and direct threat to NATO security.

But Moscow’s war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year, also is backed by China, North Korea, Iran and Belarus. Such threats require a continued momentum on defense spending, Rutte said.

“I expect Allies at the next NATO Summit in Ankara to show they are on ​a clear and credible path towards the 5% objective,” he wrote, ​adding that “a strong transatlantic bond remains essential in an age ⁠of global uncertainty.”

NATO leaders last year agreed to spend 5 percent of total gross domestic product (GDP) on defense and related investments ​by 2035. 

President Trump has repeatedly demanded that NATO countries ​significantly increase defense expenditures, criticizing some allies for not contributing their fair share to the group’s defense efforts and leaving countries like the U.S. to shoulder the majority of the cost. 

The Trump administration also maintains that European allies ​should eventually assume primary responsibility in defending the continent. The United States currently accounts for around 60 percent ​of alliance defense spending.

In addition, Trump in recent weeks has lambasted NATO allies in Europe for doing “absolutely nothing” to ​help with the U.S.-Israeli war in Iran.

Trump did not inform NATO allies prior to launching airstrikes on Iran at the end of February, though in mid-March he pressed alliance countries to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz — an ask many nations including Germany balked at.

“THE U.S.A. NEEDS NOTHING FROM NATO, BUT ‘NEVER FORGET’ THIS VERY ​IMPORTANT POINT IN TIME!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on Thursday.

In his report, Rutte said that last year “all Allies ‌reported ⁠defense expenditure figures that met or went beyond the 2% target first set in 2014, with many making steep increases in spending.”

Countries pledged to ​spend 3.5 percent of ⁠GDP on core defense, including troops and weapons, and 1.5 percent on broader defense-related investments such as cybersecurity, protecting critical infrastructure such as energy sources and adapting roads and bridges to handle ​heavy military ⁠vehicles, and strengthening defense industries.

Poland, Lithuania and Latvia have already hit the new 3.5 percent target last year, while several countries including Spain, Canada and ⁠Belgium, were ​at 2 percent, according to the report.

“This shows that NATO Allies recognize our changed security environment, and the need to meet our collective obligations,” Rutte wrote.

On average, the 32 ​NATO member countries spent 2.77 percent of GDP on defense in 2025, or more than $1.4 trillion combined. Of that, $574 billion came from Canada and Europe.

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