This year, 23 NATO countries they will spend at least 2% of GDP on defense, respecting the commitments made with the United States. This is 13 more states than last year, an unprecedented increase for the Alliance. “That’s double what it was just four years ago and shows that more and more Allies are really stepping up and investing more in our security,” the Secretary-General said Jens Stoltenberg after his visit to the White House on Monday, where he met Joe Biden.
Among the virtuosos of military spending there is noItalywhich still spends around 1.49% of GDP on weapons and armed forces and is among the 9 States members who did not reach the target of 2% established in 2014, when Stoltenberg was in his first year in office. The estimates are contained in NATO’s annual report released on Monday evening. Our country remains fifth in the ranking if military spending is considered in absolute terms.
However, Italian military spending is growing, like that of all the other Allies. In general, between 2023 and 2024 Allied military spending is grew by 18%, an increase that had not been seen for decades. Indeed, in 2012-2014 military spending within NATO had even decreased.
Not only that, from the NATO report emerges the fact that Italy, like other countries, has more than doubled, since 2014, the share of spending allocated to the purchase of new equipment military. A confirmation that the race for rearmament and the renewal of military equipment and infrastructure started throughout Europe after the war in Ukraine is having its effects, to the benefit of companies weapons manufacturers. Italy has a historic problem of disproportion between spending on current personnel and investments, which unites us in that we are the country that spends the most to maintain armed forces employees, almost 60% of total spending, but the The rush to invest has also begun to affect our latitudes, as demonstrated by the increases marked by the NATO report. With the exception of Canada and Belgium, all NATO members now spend over 20% of their budget of Defense in equipment (i.e. the threshold established by NATO), some much higher.
In the group of 9 NATO members who will not reach the minimum threshold of 2% this year, Spain appears last, which this year will be the country that will invest 1.28% of its GDP in defense. Madrid comes after Slovenia, Luxembourg (1.29%) e Belgium (1.30%). However, Spanish military spending also increased compared to 2023, when it was equal to 1.19%.
On the contrary, for the first time since the Second World War the Germany will exceed the 2% share of GDP invested in Defense in 2024. Specifically, it will touch 2.12%: overall it will invest 90.6 billion euros in the sector. It is the effect of the new defense policy launched by the chancellor Olaf Scholz after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Concerns about border security in the east obviously also weigh on the numbers of Polandwith over 4%, and small Estonia: in percentage terms, investments in the military sector of both have exceeded United States.
