De Wever: 'No other choice' but to invest more in defence
The new 5 per cent NATO defence spending target has not come out of the blue, prime minister Bart De Wever said in parliament on Tuesday, while admitting that it will be a “bitter budgetary pill to swallow”.
NATO heads of government are set to approve a new defence investment target at a summit in The Hague next week. Members will be expected to spend 5 per cent of their GDP on defence, split into 3.5 per cent on pure defence and 1.5 per cent on infrastructure works and counter-terrorism.
Last week, the leaders of coalition parties Vooruit, CD&V and MR dismissed the plans as “ridiculous” and “collective hysteria”. However, the federal government decided on Friday that Belgium would not try to stop the increase.
"The newspapers give the impression that this has fallen out of the sky"
“Investing more is not only our duty, we have no other choice,” De Wever told a meeting of the House committees on national defence and foreign relations on Tuesday. He said Belgium was continuing to argue for “a reasonable period to complete the growth path and a sensible interpretation of the new norm”.
While not mentioning specifics, he said Belgium insisted on interpreting the 1.5 per cent wider spending target very broadly and he was optimistic that it would succeed.
De Wever also hit out at critical voices within the coalition and opposition. “The newspapers give the impression that this has fallen out of the sky, both by the opposition and the majority. That is not the case; it is the result of a very long preliminary process.”
Moreover, “all the noise that distorts the approach” from Belgium jeopardises the flexibility that Belgium will be asking for at the summit, he said.
Thorough assessment
Foreign minister Maxime Prévot of Les Engagés backed the message. “3.5 per cent is not out of the blue, but based on a thorough assessment of the resources needed so that NATO can defend us. That is not a unilateral hunch.”
Prévot tried without success to find allies at a NATO meeting in Antalya, Turkey, last month to argue for more budgetary restraint. “The unity of the alliance and the cohesion of multilateral institutions that ensure our security” are now the priority, he said. “Belgium will achieve nothing by being diametrically opposed to that.”
Far-left opposition party PVDA/PTB continues to oppose the higher NATO target, MP Peter Mertens made clear. “If we spend the 5 per cent we will be safe, yes, but without social security,” he said. “This arms race will not make the world a safer place.”
Open VLD MP Kjell Vander Elst said the majority had kept quiet in parliament despite the leaders’ statements in the weekend papers. “Then there is 0.0 seriousness in the debate, even though it is about the strategic choices about the security of our country,” he said. “I hope that that sad spectacle can stop now.”
Ministers at a session of the parliamentary commission for national defence and foreign relations, Brussels, 17 June 2025 © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM
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