NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg expects that the members of the defence alliance will soon increase their military spending target of at least 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), he said in media comments published on Wednesday.
"I expect that there will be a new target in defence spending when we meet in July this year for the NATO summit in Vilnius," the Norwegian told the German newspaper Die Welt.
The target to increase spending to 2% of the respective national GDP was decided in 2014 for a period of 10 years, he said. "So we have to update it now."
In view of Russia's war against Ukraine, Stoltenberg left open what future target member states could concretely agree on. "But I assume that it will be a more ambitious target than before, because everybody sees that we have to invest more."
In this context, the NATO chief also mentioned the German government's special budget of €100 billion ($109 billion) for the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr. Currently, Germany is one of several alliance members that do not meet the 2% target.
