Speaking after a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, the Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said that Belgium is open to gradually increasing defence spending to 5% of GPD. This is in line with a proposal supported by the United States. However, Mr Francken calls for time and flexibility to enable Belgium to reach the 5%-GDP-target.
Belgium is open to increasing defence spending to 5% of GDP, but asks for time to do so
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Earlier on Thursday NATO Defence Ministers approved what is the most ambitious rearmament programme since the end of the Cold War.
In order to finance this the NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte wants to increase the defence spending targets for NATO members from the current 2% to 5% of DGP. Speaking after Thursday’s meeting, the US secretary for Defence Pete Hegseth said that the alliance is close to agreement on this.
A change of course
While the Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot (Francophone centrist) pleaded for a more realistic target last month’s NATO in Turkey, it now seems that Belgium is no longer opposed to a target of 5% of GDP.
The Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken told VRT News that "It's clear that what the Americans are saying makes sense”. However, Mr Francken added that Belgium would need more than 7 years to meet the target. “Almost no country disputes the need to move towards 5% of GDP. However, we are going to ask for flexibility. We have already made an enormous effort and it will not be easy to do even more.” He went on to say that the details will have to be worked out at the next NATO summit that will take place in The Hague later this month.