Washington, 24 January 2025 (dpa/MIA) - US President Donald Trump on Thursday defended his call for NATO countries to spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, up from the current 2% target.

In response to the objection that not even the US is spending 5% on defence, Trump said the US was protecting NATO allies, but they were "not protecting us."

"I'm not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them," Trump told reporters in Washington.

NATO estimates the United States spent about 3.38% of its GDP on defence in 2024 - well under 5%.

During his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, Trump had threatened to withdraw the US from the military alliance if other members did not fulfil their commitment to invest at least 2% of their GDP in defence.

Since then, he has boasted that it was only as a result of his pressure that the NATO partners increased their spending.

According to the latest NATO statistics from June 2024, eight of the 32 NATO countries are still below 2%, not including Iceland, which is a member but has no armed forces of its own.

However, all members of the alliance are far from Trump's desired 5% – including the US itself. The frontrunners are Poland (4.12%) and Estonia (3.43%), which border Russia. Behind them comes the US, by far the largest economy among NATO economies.

Photo: EPA