What We Know About NATO’s 5 Percent Defense Spending Agreement

The 32 members of NATO have agreed to a defense spending pledge, but what does it contain, and are there exemptions or wriggle room?

A Dutch soldier patrols around the perimeter of the NATO summit venue in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 23, 2025. Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP

President Donald Trump on June 25 joined leaders of the 31 other NATO member countries at a summit where they endorsed a new defense spending target.

The alliance agreed to a target of 5 percent of each member country’s gross domestic product (GDP), a significant increase on paper from the 2 percent benchmark set during a summit in Wales in 2014.