NATO agrees to 5% defense spending goal

Experts say bloc should be stabilizing force instead of war-fighting alliance

Leaders of the NATO western defensive alliance approved an ambitious target to increase defense spending by the end of their summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Wednesday.

In a short statement, NATO endorsed a higher defense spending goal of 5 percent of GDP by 2035.

The figure includes both direct military spending, with a 3.5 percent core benchmark, and an additional 1.5 percent for strategic resilience, cybersecurity and industrial readiness.