The Hague NATO Summit on 25 June 2025 will possibly go down in history as the moment when Europeans were put on serious notice by the United States that Washington was no longer going to subsidise European security. As a long-standing objective of the Trump administration, European allies were cajoled into accepting increased defence spending levels as a way of rebalancing burden-sharing within the alliance. At the NATO Wales Summit over a decade ago, allies pledged to spend up to 2% of GDP on defence, but, in the Hague, they increased this objective to 5% of GDP. While only a couple of NATO allies publicly rallied against this new 5% target, most would have agreed to the objective, knowing full well that meeting it will be a struggle economically, especially given Europe’s current economic climate. So, if President Trump’s desire for a 5% target was achieved, European allies are now faced with the task of spending more on defence. This, of course, raises serious questions about where the additional capital will come from and how best to spend it, especially given Europe’s continued military gaps.

EU Military Forum

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