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Last year, just 11 of the alliance’s 32 members, including the UK, reached the current target. The others were the US, which is by far the largest overall contributor, alongside Poland, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia and Denmark.
Luxembourg, which had the smallest budget for defence compared to its GDP, spent just 1 per cent, while Belgium and Spain spent 1.2 per cent.
Mr Duda has previously argued that 3 per cent – a level reached only by Poland, the US and Greece – is required to defend against “growing threats” including Russia launching a “direct confrontation with Nato”.
On Tuesday, Timo Pesonen, a senior EU defence official, said a 3 per cent target was already under discussion among some member states behind closed doors.
“When the Nato allies are increasing their budget to at least one per cent of GDP, some people speak about 3 per cent already,” he said.
The UK spent 2.28 per cent of GDP on defence in 2023, and plans to increase its spending to 2.32 per cent in the 2024-25 fiscal year.
Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister, last week announced that Britain’s spending would increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP by the end of the decade – an increase of £75 billion overall.
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