{"id":50628,"date":"2025-04-25T23:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T23:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/50628\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T23:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T23:24:13","slug":"nato-nation-risks-trumps-fury-as-it-is-unsure-it-can-hit-2-defence-spending-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/50628\/","title":{"rendered":"NATO nation risks Trump’s fury as it is ‘unsure’ it can hit 2% defence spending | World | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are concerns in Rome over whether Italy<\/a> will be able to hit NATO<\/a>\u2019s defence spending target, reports say, which would likely anger Donald Trump<\/a>. Italy<\/a> said it would meet the alliance\u2019s 2% of GDP on defence target this year, but the government is privately unsure whether that will be possible, according to reports.<\/p>\n

The country had planned to boost its defence pursestrings through accounting changes, however POLITICO<\/a> reports two Italian officials familiar with the budget talks are not sure whether this will be accepted by NATO or the European Commission. The Italian government expects to face pressure to increase its spending from the US<\/a> and EU at June\u2019s NATO<\/a> summit in The Hague, the anonymous officials told POLITICO<\/a>. They also said the alliance and the Commission could challenge the legal justification for the move.<\/p>\n

Italy<\/a> spent 1.49% of its GDP on defence in 2024 – one of the lowest in NATO<\/a>, official figures show.<\/p>\n

Failure to increase the spending is likely to frustrate the US<\/a> President who has regularly criticised the alliance for years.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump<\/a> has said he believes members should be spending 5% of their GDP – more than what any member currently spends, including the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He previously said he would not defend NATO<\/a> nations not paying enough for their own defence.<\/p>\n

“It’s common sense, right,\u201d he said. “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them.”<\/p>\n

NATO<\/a> Secretary General Mark Rutte has also urged alliance members to spend considerably more on defence.<\/p>\n

It comes amid mounting tensions with Russia<\/a> and ongoing concerns over US<\/a> commitment to NATO<\/a> and European security.<\/p>\n

The UK<\/a> has unveiled plans to increase its defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027, however critics have claimed the uplift isn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

Several NATO<\/a> members have confirmed plans to boost their forces.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Denmark unveiled \u00a3457 million plans to overhaul its naval forces<\/a>, citing the threat posed by Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This includes dozens of new vessels, drones and sonar systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are concerns in Rome over whether Italy will be able to hit NATO\u2019s defence spending target, reports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2993,32,299,2199,2821,12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-50628","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-defence","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-italy","12":"tag-nato","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114401185903953056","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}