Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has reaffirmed Portugal’s commitment to increasing defence spending to 2.0% of GDP by 2029, but some other NATO countries, particularly the United States, say that is not nearly good enough.
At the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that countries failing to meet the 2.0% target would have to reach it within “a couple of months”, not years. This was in the face of different threats from Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Rutte met Montenegro this week in Lisbon, and the Portuguese prime minister said he would do his best to bring forward the 2.0% target date. He later told a press conference that both his PSD-led government and other parties, most notably the opposition Socialists, were strongly committed” to meeting the defence spending goal, but that the deadline would depend on a task force involving the foreign, domestic defence and finance ministries, “which could be extended to other areas of government.” He added that the country’s productive and industrial capacity needed to be increased and enhanced for long-term viability.
The Portuguese prime minister stressed that the US in particular should be aware that the 23 European Union members of the North Atlantic Alliance collectively already spend more than 2.0% of their GDP on defence.
“I’m not avoiding the responsibility of Portugal to do this as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that it is necessary to act as a bloc to redefine objectives, policies, and investments to be effective.
Increased investment in the defence industry will mean greater autonomy for Europe, safeguarding the European economy and, as a result, safeguarding the European welfare state, said Montenegro.
NATO Secretary General Rutte’s insistence that the urgent increased spending also applied to Spain. At a meeting with Jose Manuel Albares, Spain’s foreign minister, Albares like Montenegro confirmed his country’s intention of spending 2.0% of its GDP on defence by 2029.
Foreign Minister Albares told reporters that Spain had been increasing its defence spending “for years”, and it was “getting close” to the 2.0% goal. Spain’s defence budget currently stands at 1.8% of GDP.
President Donald Trump is expected to increase pressure on European countries for a defence spending rise to 5.0% of GDP, while, threatening to pull the United States out of NATO altogether if they fail to comply.
In view of the war in Ukraine and the possibility of further Russian expansion, top EU foreign affairs official, Kaja Kallas, told the recent annual conference of the European Defence Agency in Brussels that member states need “to wake up.”
Written by Len Port
