NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte opened the 36th NATO Summit in Ankara today declaring the two-day gathering is about delivery and implementation, not new pledges, as he confirmed European allies and Canada are already investing around 4% of GDP on defence and security, just one year into the ten-year project to reach 5%.
“Here in Ankara, I expect nations to present clear, concrete and credible plans to reach that 5% goal. And the evidence we see so far is impressive,” Rutte said, adding that European allies and Canada had spent an additional $1.2 trillion on defence over the past decade, including a 20% increase of $139 billion between 2024 and 2025.
The 5% target, agreed at The Hague last year, splits into 3.5% for core military spending and 1.5% for cyber, infrastructure and resilience. Poland leads the alliance at 4.7% of GDP, followed by the three Baltic states. For the first time in NATO history, Norway has surpassed the United States in defence spending per capita.
Rutte described the summit’s broader ambition as breathing life into NATO 3.0, an alliance less dependent on the United States but in which Washington remains firmly committed. He also called on allies to ensure Ukraine receives everything it needs following a Russian attack on Kyiv on July 6 that killed at least 21 people. NATO leaders are expected to endorse a communique pledging 70 billion euros in bilateral and institutional support for Ukraine for 2026 and 2027.
