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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, has submitted a request for NATO to increase its minimum guideline for defence spending to 3% of GDP, up from 2% currently.
“If the entire alliance does not increase its spending, then unfortunately Putin may want to attack again, because there will be no effective deterrence,” said Duda after meeting NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We all mutually support each other in building security.”
“I submitted a written request to [Rutte] to raise the issue of expenditure at the [upcoming NATO] summit in The Hague and to make a decision within the alliance that at least 3% of GDP be allocated to defense,” he added, saying the new minimum should be implemented “immediately”.
One year ago, at the White House, I proposed that all NATO Allies raise their defense spending up to a minimum of 3% of GDP. Today, in Brussels, I submitted to @SecGenNATO Mark Rutte a formal request to this effect. I hope that such decision will be made by all NATO members and…
— Andrzej Duda (@AndrzejDuda) March 6, 2025
Duda’s proposal came on the same day that US President Donald Trump warned that if NATO members do not pay enough for their own defence, “I’m not going to defend them” if they are attacked.
Under article 5 of the NATO’s treaty, members are obliged to consider an armed attack on one of them to be an attack on all and to mount a collective defence.
However, Trump has long complained that some member states are “freeriding” by underspending on defence in the knowledge that their allies, in particular the US, are protecting them. Trump even suggested in January that NATO’s minimum defence spending guideline should be raised to 5% of GDP.
In 2014, in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, NATO members agreed to each commit the equivalent of 2% of GDP to defence spending. Most countries have now reached that target.
However, last year, eight of the alliance’s 32 members were still spending less than 2%: Croatia, Portugal, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Luxembourg, Slovenia and Spain.
At the other end of the scale, NATO’s biggest relative spenders were Poland (4.12%), Estonia (3.43%), the United States (3.38%) and Latvia (3.15%).
This year, Poland has raised its defence budget again, to 4.7% of GDP. On a visit to Warsaw last month, Trump’s new defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, called Poland a “model ally” for “leading by example on defence spending”.
Yesterday, Duda noted that when he visited the White House one year ago, he had proposed that NATO raise its guideline to 3%. At that time, Joe Biden was still president. Donald Trump’s subsequent return to the presidency had added even more urgency to European efforts to increase defence spending.
Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, yesterday called on Europe to “join and win the arms race” with Russia. Last week, he said that Europe must start “believing that we are a global power” and attain “defence independence”.
At a summit in Brussels yesterday, EU leaders endorsed plans put forward by the European Commission to significantly increase defence spending in the bloc.
Europe must "join and win the arms race” with Russia if it wants to "avoid a wider, large-scale conflict, says Poland's @donaldtusk.
"This is a turning point at which Europe has understood what responsibility rests upon it" https://t.co/mrxII7fs3V
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 6, 2025
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Marek Borawski/KPRP
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
