Belgium to oppose 5 per cent spending target at NATO meeting in Antalya

15 May 2025

Belgian Foreign minister Maxime Prévot will oppose raising the defence spending target to 5 per cent of GDP at a NATO meeting in Antalya, Turkey, on Thursday. This goal is "excessive" given Belgium's budgetary situation, he told Radio 1.

Even a 3.5 per cent target is not feasible for Belgium in the short and medium term, Prévot said ahead of the informal meeting of NATO Foreign ministers.

The ministers are meeting ahead of a NATO summit in The Hague in June, where members are expected to agree on a new defence spending target. The US has urged an increase to 5 per cent of GDP, a goal endorsed by NATO secretary general Mark Rutte.

Public opinion

Belgium has only recently pledged to meet the current 2 per cent spending target by the end of 2025. While Prévot acknowledged that this commitment might appear modest to many partners in Antalya, he said that for Belgium, it represented "a tremendous effort costing billions of euros".

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This spending effort comes "at a time when the government is asking citizens to make serious efforts in various areas of society", said Prévot. Belgium has recently experienced a wave of strikes in response to cuts to social spending and pensions, aimed at reducing the country's budget deficit.

"Public opinion sometimes struggles to understand why these efforts are necessary. Therefore, we must explain this clearly, while also bearing in mind the public's capacity to support these choices," said Prévot.

As a country with a large debt and budget deficits, Belgium "cannot agree to a future target of 5 per cent, or even 3.5 per cent, in the short and medium term", he said.

Excessive targets

He described the targets as excessive, given current and future budgetary capacity. "The status quo is clearly also unsustainable. We are prepared to do our part, but only within a timeframe of 10 to 15 years, certainly not seven, as set out in the current proposal," he said.

A target of 2.5 per cent by 2034 would be realistic for Belgium, he said. "That would already represent an additional effort of billions. We do not yet know how we can finance that."

Going beyond 2.5 per cent is not out of the question for Prévot, who said that the final decision of the NATO allies will be taken into account. Nevertheless, he hopes to form a “coalition of the willing” with other countries, such as Spain and Italy, to reach an agreement on a timeframe of 10 to 15 years.

^{An informal meeting of NATO Foreign ministers in Antalya, Turkey, 15 May 2025 © PHOTO OZAN KOSE / AFP}

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