NATO presents annual report of 2021, Belgium behind the curve on defence spending

On Thursday, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg presented the NATO annual report of 2021 during a press conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Main topics include the war in Ukraine and rising defence spending by allied countries.

According to Stoltenberg, NATO has responded quickly and decisively to the Russian invasion of Ukraine: "We made every effort to engage Russia in dialogue but Moscow consistently turned us down and ultimately decided to cut diplomatic ties. Last fall, we also took action to heighten the readiness of our forces, deploy more troops to the eastern part of our Alliance and stepped up our support to Ukraine."

NATO countries agreed ©in 2014 to increase defence spending to at least 2 per cent of GDP by 2024. In 2021, eight NATO countries spent 2 percent of GDP or more on defence, compared to only three in 2014. Greece (3.59%) and the US (3.57%) top the list.

Belgium hasn't met the 2 percent target yet. With 1.07%, our country ranks 28th out of 30 member states, ahead of Spain (1.03%) and Luxembourg (0.54%). 

At the beginning of this year, even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Belgian government decided to invest an additional 10 billion euros in the army. The funds should thus rise to 1.54% of GDP by 2030. At last week's NATO summit, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo had also announced that Belgium would invest an additional 1 billion euros in defence over the next three years.

© BELGA PHOTO POOL FREDERIC SIERAKOWSKI