Italy has achieved the goal of spending 2 percent of its GDP for the defense, a commitment that our country had made together with the other NATO members in 2014. “We reached the goal of 2 percent of the GDP for defense and security expenditure, we have already delivered the letter to NATO”, announced the foreign minister Antonio Tajani on the edge of the informal meeting of the Atlantic alliance in Antalya, in Türkiye.
The new requests
The achievement of the goal, over 10 years after the commitment to do it, however it may not yet be enough, given that due to the geopolitical conditions changed worldwide, and the pressure from the United States of Donald Trump, now the secretary of NATO, Mark Rutte, asked the allies to increase the level of expenditure even to 5 percent of GDP.
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Italy, through the mouth of Tajani, said she was “available to work also to increase the costs for safety” but “I think it would be more just 3 plus 2, it would be more balanced”. The reference is to the two distinct parts of Rutte’s proposal, or an increase to 3.5 percent of expenditure in the strict sense and 1.5 percent in safety expenses, whose criteria will be negotiated.
Tajani: “It takes time”
Rutte “asked for 5 percent, but it takes time. Now we have reached 2 percent, we will see what the requests will be: we talk about the 5 to be achieved within a few years, we will see how many we will see what the criteria will be, how they will be divided”, underlined the owner of the Farnesina.
“We will participate in the discussion and we will try to continue working in this direction of a growth in investment for safety”, continued Tajani, ensuring that “Italy will want to do its part because we are convinced that it is our duty to guarantee security”. “Here it is not a question of being neither warfondai nor lords of arms. Safety is something much wider, it also concerns cybernetic infrastructures, port infrastructures, airport, railway, motorway that are used to guarantee it”.
The goal still far away
In 2024 only 22 of the 32 NATO members had reached or exceeded the 2 percent threshold of GDP intended for defense, compared to the only three countries that made it in 2014. Among these, Poland stands out, with an expense of 4.7 percent, and the Baltic nations, which aim to allocate at least 2.5 percent of the GDP to defense. On the contrary, countries like Belgium and Spain have not yet reached 2 percent.
