Bauer: NATO plans to agree on new weapons and troop targets this summer

NATO defense ministers will try to agree on new capability goals in the weeks before alliance leaders meet in The Hague on June 24-26

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Photo: Shutterstock
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

NATO plans to decide on new arms and troop targets by the summer, a senior military official said, calling it the alliance's biggest reform since the Cold War as it faces a growing threat from Russia.

The Western military and political alliance is under pressure not only due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but also internally, as US President-elect Donald Trump calls on members to significantly increase defense spending, Reuters reports.

NATO defense ministers will try to reach an agreement on new capability goals in the weeks before alliance leaders meet in The Hague from June 24-26, the head of the alliance's military committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, said in an interview with Reuters.

"Our goal is to reach an agreement before the summit in The Hague," Bauer said, "to ensure that the remaining issues are resolved and, if necessary, that the leaders resolve them at the summit."

In 2023, NATO leaders adopted thousands of pages of secret defense plans that, for the first time since the Cold War, detail how the alliance would respond to a Russian attack.

However, the documents revealed significant gaps in air defense, long-range missiles, troop numbers, ammunition, logistics and secure digital battlefield communications.

These gaps are supposed to be addressed by the new capability targets, which were originally supposed to be agreed at a meeting of NATO defense ministers in the fall of 2025.

The summit in The Hague will also consider increasing NATO's existing target for military spending, which currently stands at two percent of national GDP, while some experts are proposing a new target of three percent. Trump, who returns to the White House on January 20, recently called for a five percent goal.

Bauer would not specify the figure, but said the idea is to speed up the new capability targets so that "everyone better understands the connection to the money" as the needs are clearly defined through the new defense plans.

"The difference is what needs to be bought, and that's what the new capability goals will define," the admiral said.

"Basically, it will help people understand why we need more than two percent."

During the Cold War, NATO allies spent an average of between three and six percent of their national GDP on military forces, Bauer said.

"If we had continued to spend (as an alliance) as much as we did in the early 90s, when that level was three percent, we would have spent $8,6 trillion more than we are spending now," Bauer said.

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