Germany quibbles as NATO boss urges more defence spending

NATO must increase defence spending as in "a contested and dangerous world" alliance security can not be taken for granted, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

The alliance chief told a meeting of NATO foreign ministers he expected allies to agree on a new pledge of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) as "a minimum to be invested in defence."

Flush from admitting freshly minted new member Finland, NATO foreign ministers are gathered for a second day of talks focused on the familiar topics of China and defence spending.

A perennial issue, alliance members have long struggled to reach NATO's self-imposed pledge to spend 2% of GDP on defence by 2024, with the United States making up the majority of defence investment.

In 2022, seven of the alliance members met NATO's self-imposed 2% pledge on defence spending as a proportion of GDP, down from eight in 2021 and 11 in 2020, according to the alliance's annual report.

This is up however from just three countries in 2014, the year NATO members committed to reaching this spending pledge faster after Russia annexed Crimea in Ukraine.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine meant allies have to up defence spending but cautioned against using the 2%-of-GDP pledge as the only metric.

"It's so critical we don't just talk about percentages, but also about the ability to achieve goals," she said before the start of the meeting.

Baerbock noted that in economically difficult times, NATO members could meet the spending pledge as economic growth is lower without achieving any real military development.

Other NATO members are pushing for more spending. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu backed a target of 2.5%. Estonia has set a goal of at least 3% of GDP spent on defence from next year, he added.

NATO allies are also hosting representatives from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea to discuss China in the wake of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Moscow.

Stoltenberg said allies were to confer with each other about "how to deal with the growing strategic competition, including China's increasing alignment with Russia."

As well as concerns that China is considering supplying arms to Russia and Beijing's aggressive stance towards Taiwan, NATO allies are to discuss the Ukraine war's impact on the Indo-Pacific region.

"What happens in Europe matters for the Indo-Pacific, for Asia. And what happens in Asia matters for Europe," Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.

"And the war in Ukraine really demonstrates that with all its global ramifications," he said.