NATO countries want to include military aid to Ukraine in their defense spending
Kyiv • UNN
NATO countries plan to include funds spent on strengthening the Armed Forces of Ukraine as defense spending. This will happen as part of the Alliance's proposal to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.
NATO countries are planning to take into account new funds spent on strengthening the Armed Forces of Ukraine - as defense spending as part of the Alliance's proposal to increase its defense spending to 5% of GDP. This is reported by Euractiv with reference to sources, reports UNN.
Details
It is noted that from now on, new purchases of military equipment specifically for Ukraine, as well as investments in the Ukrainian military industry, will be taken into account by NATO countries as "defense" spending in accordance with the new spending targets.
NATO states plan to take into account new funds that will be spent on strengthening the Ukrainian army as related to defense in accordance with NATO's proposal to increase defense spending targets to 5% of GDP.
According to the publication, the agreement may still be revised before the annual NATO summit in The Hague on June 24 and 25. The meeting is expected to approve a general agreement to increase defense spending targets from the current 2% of GDP. At the same time, the final details of the targets are likely to be developed later.
NATO's current proposal calls on each member of the Alliance to spend at least 5% annually on defense: 3.5% of which will be allocated to key defense areas (military equipment and cash support for soldiers), and the remaining 1.5% to cybersecurity, infrastructure or resilience-building goals.
According to sources, there is a common agreement among the 32 military allies that only new funds spent on military support to Ukraine will be included in the second category.
According to the current state of internal discussions, the cost of donations from existing stocks will not be taken into account when calculating the target in order to avoid double counting of money already spent on the purchase of equipment.
According to Euractiv, equipment transferred to Ukraine from NATO military arsenals has already been taken into account as part of regular spending on core defense during the initial acquisition. However, future orders to replace the transferred equipment will still be counted towards the 3.5% core defense target. At the same time, non-military assistance to Ukraine from NATO countries will not be counted as "defense-related" in the alliance's spending targets.
That is, if a NATO country buys new weapons for Ukraine or invests in the Ukrainian defense industry, this will go into the 1.5% expenses. If a country replaces weapons that it previously gave to Ukraine, these costs go into the main block - 3.5%. If old weapons are transferred from the warehouse or humanitarian aid is provided, this is not taken into account in the expenses.
Sources told the publication that the decision to include financial assistance to the Ukrainian military as NATO defense spending makes sense given that arming Ukraine has a direct and positive impact on the Alliance's security.
Let us remind you
Britain will be forced to sign an agreement to increase defense spending to 3.5% of GDP by 2035 at the NATO summit this month. This will take place as part of the alliance's secretary general's campaign to support cooperation with the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Trump to attend June NATO summit in The Hague - Bloomberg03.06.25, 20:30 • 4200 views
