“The overall percentage that is necessary to make the new plans executable is much closer to 3% of GDP than it is to 2%,” the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, Rob Bauer, said in Brussels.
“I expect that under the new (Donald) Trump administration (in the U.S.), there will be a much more intense discussion about how much more Europe and Canada need to spend, and that is a healthy and valid discussion to be had,” he added.
Bauer is NATO’s highest-ranking military officer. Previously, he commanded the Dutch armed forces from 2017 to 2021.
Trump, who will take office as the 47th president of the United States on January 20, has consistently pressed America’s European allies to increase their military spending, demanding that they allocate at least 3% of their GDP to defense to ensure an equitable contribution to collective security within NATO.
Russia has more troops, but lower quality, official says
Bauer also said that while Russia’s ground forces have grown since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, their quality has since deteriorated.
“The quality of those forces has gone down,” he said, pointing to the state of Russia’s equipment and the level of training of its soldiers.
“At the moment, the Russians are not the same threat as in February 2022, so we have a bit of time to prepare ourselves,” Bauer said, adding that this meant ramping up investments into the defense industry.
