Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis [Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters]
Greece’s prime minister stated on Friday that President Trump’s call for NATO countries to allocate 5% of their GDP to defense spending would be nearly unattainable for most member states.
“I think 5% frankly, is very, very difficult,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a CNBC interview. “If we’re talking about hard defense spending, I think 3.5% is probably the ceiling of what could be sort of accepted,” News.Az reports citing The Washington Times.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO leaders for failing to spend enough on their own defense. Since taking office in January, the president has demanded that members contribute up to 5% of their GDP to defense spending.
While Mr. Mitsotakis say the 5% allocation is unrealistic in the near future, he admitted that it would be a reasonable long-term goal for NATO nations if other investments in defensive infrastructure could be counted in the investment umbrella.
NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte wants NATO members to meet a new 5% threshold by 2032, but he has proposed that nations spend 3.5% of GDP on defense while putting aside another 1.5% for other security-related investments.
Many NATO members have struggled to maintain the current 2% defense spending benchmark. According to NATO’s own accounting, only Estonia, Poland and the U.S. spent more than 3.4% of their GDP on defense last year.
Greece spent more than the NATO goal last year, allocating 3.1% of its GDP to defense spending.
However, Mr. Trump’s demands and Russia’s war in Ukraine have sparked a major interest in increasing defense spending among NATO members.