NATO Leaders to Vow to Lift Military Spending

NATO Leaders to Vow to Lift Military Spending
Commitment Would Be Nonbinding

By STEPHEN FIDLER CONNECT
Updated Sept. 4, 2014 12:01 p.m. ET


NEWPORT, Wales—Leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will pledge at a summit here to lift their military spending to 2% of each country's gross domestic product over the next 10 years, according to three officials familiar with the negotiations over the summit communiqué.

Only four of NATO's 28 member states currently meet or exceed that level: the U.S., U.K., Greece and Estonia. The decision to cite the 2% figure was the subject of intense political negotiations ahead of the meeting here. NATO summit conclusions negotiated ahead of time are rarely overturned by leaders.

Before the meeting started on Thursday, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the alliance would "turn the corner and reverse the trend of declining military spending" at the summit.

The summit statement is expected to say that governments will "aim to" meet the 2% target in 10 years, meaning it is a nonbinding commitment. It will include a pledge for countries to spend 20% of their defense budget on investment, including new equipment. The latter target was included after German encouragement, since Berlin argues that the quality of military spending matters as much as the amount.

Diplomats said the pledge was initially resisted by Canada, which spent just 1% of GDP on defense last year, according to NATO estimates, and Germany, which spent 1.3%.

In 2002, NATO leaders decided at a summit in Prague that 2% should be the "benchmark" for military spending. Since then, military spending in most European countries has continued to decline.