President Trump Still Wants NATO Members To Increase Their Defense Budget To 5 Percent

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order after being sworn in. (Wikimedia Commons/The Trump White House)

JAKARTA - President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was not sure the United States should spend any fees on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), telling reporters the United States protected NATO members, but they "did not protect us."

President Trump reiterated demands that members of other transatlantic alliances spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense, a large increase over the current 2 percent target and a level currently not achieved by any NATO country, including the US itself.

"I'm not sure we should spend any money, but we certainly have to help them," President Trump told reporters after signing an executive order in the Oval Room.

"We protect them. They don't protect us," he said.

"They have to raise 2 percent to 5 percent," he said, repeating his previous statement at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Washington is known to finance 15.8 percent of the annual expenditure of the 32-member military alliance, which amounts to about US$3.5 billion. That is the largest part together with Germany, according to NATO details for 2024.

The US's indirect financial contribution to the alliance, which consists of the US, Canada, and more than two dozen European countries, includes military forces but is not part of the organization's annual budget.

The US overall defense budget alone exceeds the budget of other NATO member countries and amounts to $816.7 billion by 2023, more than half of the alliance's total spending.

On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Marco Rubio spoke with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, reaffirming Washington's commitment to the alliance, while the two also "discuss the importance of having capable defense allies and real burden-sharing," the State Department said on Thursday.

Separately, officials from NATO countries and analysts say NATO will not heed Trump's proposal for a major increase in defense spending, but will likely agree to exceed its current targets.

Analysts say the 5 percent figure will be politically and economically impossible for nearly all members. However, a new target is likely to be agreed upon at a NATO summit in The Hague in June, driven by fears Russia will attack NATO after Ukraine and by President Trump's insistence, officials said.

Some expect an agreement on the target of about 3 percent of GDP. However, it will also be difficult for many countries to barely meet or less than the current 2 percent target, a decade after stipulation.

It said eight NATO members had not met the current defense spending target.