Nato remains ambiguous on goals in the new world

At the close of the Nato (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) Summit 2025 in The Hague, alliance members made a landmark decision: All 32 nations agreed to raise defence spending to 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035.

- Gurjit Singh

The new pledge, up from the long-standing 2% benchmark, marks the most ambitious military investment target in the alliance's history and reflects mounting security concerns across the Euro-Atlantic space. US President Donald Trump hailed the agreement as a "monumental win" for Washington, claiming that it corrected longstanding imbalances in Nato's burden-sharing.

The summit declaration outlined that the 5% commitment will be split into two distinct categories. Around 3.5% of GDP will go toward traditional defence spending aligned with Nato capability targets, covering military hardware, force readiness, and interoperability. The remaining 1.5% will be directed toward emerging non-military threats—securing critical infrastructure, cyber defence, civil preparedness, innovation, and the defence industrial base.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, hosting his first summit in the role, emphasised that this investment "will ensure we have the forces, capabilities, resources, infrastructure, and resilience needed to deter and defend in line with our three core tasks: deterrence and defence, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security."