US President Donald Trump is considering a NATO reform based on the pay to play principle. It would allow allies to be excluded from decision-making on key issues if their defense spending is below 5% of GDP. The Telegraph reports this.
According to the newspaper, this could affect decisions on alliance spending, participation in joint missions, the bloc’s enlargement, and even the use of Article 5 on collective defense in the event of external aggression.
“Our frustration with the Europeans is quite real. Any country that does not pay 5% should not be allowed to vote on future NATO spending,” a source in the US administration told the newspaper.
Sources in NATO told The Telegraph that the US has not officially presented these plans at the alliance headquarters. It is not specified how such a NATO reform could be implemented. At present, no NATO member, including the US, has reached defense spending of 5%. Poland spends the most in relative terms, at 4.3%.
It was reported this week that all NATO countries reached the target of spending 2% of GDP on defense by the end of 2025. That benchmark was set in 2014. Five countries met it only at the minimum level: Spain, Portugal, Albania, Belgium, and Canada.
In June last year, NATO countries agreed to raise defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035 because of the “long-term threat” from Russia. It is specified that countries will have to allocate at least 3.5% of GDP annually to core defense needs, and another 1.5% to infrastructure protection.