Exclusive-NATO's Rutte floats including broader security spending to hit Trump's 5% defence target

By Andrew Gray and Lili Bayer

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -NATO chief Mark Rutte has proposed alliance members boost defence spending to 3.5% of GDP and commit a further 1.5% to broader security-related spending to meet Donald Trump’s demand for a 5% target, people familiar with the proposal told Reuters.

Rutte’s proposal could allow the U.S. president to declare a win at a NATO summit in The Hague in June while not committing European nations and Canada to a 5% pledge on core military spending that many see as politically and economically unviable.

NATO’s current defence spending goal is at least 2% of GDP, met by 22 of its 32 members. Leaders across NATO say that goal is no longer sufficient, as they see Russia as a much greater threat after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

No NATO country meets Trump's 5% target. According to NATO, the United States spends about 3.2% of GDP on defence. Poland spends the biggest share of its output at over 4%.

Many of NATO's European members are under pressure to increase defence spending as the U.S. has made clear it will no longer be primarily focused on protecting the continent. Trump has threatened not to come to the aid of fellow NATO members if they have not spent enough on their own defence.

The definition of the broader category of security-related spending would still have to be agreed. It could include upgrading roads and bridges to support heavy military vehicles, civil defence and cyber measures, according to officials.

Asked whether Rutte had made the proposal, NATO spokesperson Allison Hart did not reply directly. She said Rutte had "repeatedly said that increased defence spending is needed in order to meet the capability targets that allies will soon agree and to ensure fairer burden sharing among allies".

"This will likely involve not only higher investment in defence according to the agreed NATO definitions but also additional investment in related areas like infrastructure and resilience," Hart said in an email.

"The Secretary General is working in close consultation with allies to prepare decisions on this for our summit in The Hague," she said.

EARLY STAGES

The debate over Rutte’s proposal is still in its early stages and it remains unclear whether it could win support from all of the alliance’s 32 members.

“We would be fine with that, especially if that would bring consensus,” said one senior European official.

Some governments have been wary of widening definitions of security spending, fearing others would try to include items with little connection to defence in the broader category.

NATO members collectively spent some 2.61% of GDP on defence in 2024, according estimates published by the alliance. But those figures mask big divergences between allies.

Italy, Portugal, Canada, Slovenia, Luxembourg, Belgium and Spain were near the bottom of the list, all at or under 1.5%. Leaders of some of those countries have said that, as they are further from Russia, there is less they can do to protect Europe from an invasion, and have sought to have spending in areas such as border security be counted towards their contributions.

(Reporting by Andrew Gray and Lili BayerEditing by Bart Meijer and Peter Graff)