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NATO Defense Expenditure Visualized [Infographic]

This article is more than 2 years old.

NATO is holding its first in-person summit since the start of the pandemic and the bulk of the focus in Brussels is set to be on President Biden. After his predecessor lambasted U.S. allies for not spending their fair share and threatened to quit the alliance, Biden is expected to attempt to undo most of that damage and reassure NATO members of America's "ironclad commitment" to collective defense. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan is also expected to attempt to repair a rift with the U.S. after the White House recognized the Armenian Genocide and Washington ejected Turkey from the F-35 program after Ankara purchased Russian S-400 suface-to-air missiles.

Back in 2018, then U.S. President Donald Trump launched a broadside against members of the alliance for failing to meet the 2% of GDP spending threshold agreed upon at the 2014 summit in Wales. Germany in particular was singled out for criticism and Trump ordered 12,000 U.S. troops to be withdrawn from the country, a move Biden has since reversed. Trump's threats, coupled with military resurgences in both Russia and China, have resulted in a number of countries upping their spending to meet that 2% threshold. According to data released by the alliance last week, 10 members are now at or above that level. Apart from the U.S. and the U.K., the list includes Greece, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Romania and France.

Back when it attracted Trump's ire in 2018, Germany was spending 1.2% of its GDP in defense. It has now upped that to 1.5%, with NATO data showing that it is on track to spend $65 billion in 2021, the third-highest overall expenditure level across the alliance. The U.S. is in first place, of course, set for a whopping $811 billion outlay this year which is equivalent to 3.5% of its GDP. The U.K. comes a distant second with just under $73 billion in spending estimated for 2021, or 2.29% of its GDP. The small European country of Luxembourg has the lowest defense spending as a share of GDP in NATO at 0.57% of GDP or $474 million.

*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)

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