BRUSSELS, December 7. /TASS/: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said assistance to Ukraine is a good opportunity for NATO member countries to spend their money. When asked how NATO member countries should spend 2% of their GDP on defense, something the alliance requires of its members, the secretary general said, "If the problem is that it’s hard to spend 2% [of GDP], I can help you."
"We have a lot of good purposes in NATO. We have a big assistance fund for Ukraine," he said at a news conference after meeting with Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden. "If you have surplus money, you can put it in there."
NATO countries set the goal of bringing their military expenditures to 2% of GDP at the Wales Summit in September 2014, citing the "Russian threat" following the reunification of Crimea with Russia. At the Vilnius summit in July 2023, it was decided that 2% of GDP should be a minimum level of defense spending for NATO countries, rather than a goal to reach.
So far, eight out of 31 NATO countries have complied with this requirement. Luxembourg, one of Europe's largest banking hubs, is the smallest defense spender in NATO, with its defense budget making up about 0.54% of its GDP.
