Brussels, Aug. 28, 2025 (Lusa) - NATO expects all 32 members of the Atlantic Alliance to meet or exceed this year's target for defence spending, 2% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), including those that have been spending less, such as Portugal.
According to the report Defence Expenditure by NATO Countries (2014-2025), released today, which consolidates information reported by the governments of the allied countries in relation to actual or planned military spending, Portugal will spend more than €5.9 billion this year, an increase of almost €1.5 billion compared to what was estimated in 2024 and more than double what was recorded in 2020.
In relation to GDP, the estimate is 2%, 0.42 percentage points higher than in 2024 and 0.67 points higher than in 2023.
The percentage of spending estimated for this year by Portugal is below the average of the European allies and Canada (2.27%) and even more than the total (2.76%), which includes the United States, which has by far the largest defence budget of the 32, close to one trillion dollars (€859 billion) this year.
According to the figures presented by NATO, Portugal will have 24,900 military personnel at the end of this year, 900 more than the 2024 estimate, but 5,800 fewer than it had in 2014.
In recent years, Portugal has been among the allies failing to meet the 2% target. Like other members of this group—Belgium, Canada, Spain, and Italy—it will become compliant by the end of the year, according to the figures presented.
These countries will thus have taken more than 10 years to reach this target, set in 2014 by NATO following Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The figures released today by NATO indicate that Poland will continue to be the country in the Atlantic Alliance that will devote the largest share of its GDP to defence spending in 2025 (4.48%).
The United States will spend 3.22% of its GDP this year, a slight drop on previous years, but well ahead of all the other NATO countries in absolute terms.
Faced with a Russia that, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, currently spends the equivalent of 7.1 % of GDP and has been pursuing a war against Ukraine for more than three and a half years, the NATO countries have pledged to raise the spending target.
Also under pressure from US President Trump, at the end of June, the allies pledged to almost double their commitment by 2035, increasing the percentage of GDP earmarked for strictly military spending to 3.5%.
They also pledged to devote 1.5% of GDP to security-related spending, including certain infrastructure projects (such as roads and bridges).
In total, this commitment will represent 5% of the wealth produced annually by the 32 allies, or hundreds of billions of euros.
By 2025 alone, NATO expects military spending to exceed $1.5 trillion (€1.29 trillion).
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte recently stated that Moscow could launch a ‘victorious’ offensive in Europe in the next three to five years if nothing is done to create an allied military force with deterrent capacity.
The 5% commitment made at the NATO summit in The Hague (Netherlands) was criticised and even rejected by Spain, which although it did not renounce its intention to sign the summit's final declaration, considered that this percentage did not apply to it.
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