NATO to Classify Military Aid to Ukraine as Part of Member Defense Spending
In a landmark decision at its 2025 summit in The Hague, NATO allies agreed to include military assistance to Ukraine in their national defense spending calculations, effectively institutionalizing support for Kyiv within the Alliance’s long-term strategic planning, The Gaze reports.
According to the summit’s final communiqué, member states reaffirmed their commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and defense.
“Allies reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours, and, to this end, will include direct contributions towards Ukraine’s defence and its defence industry when calculating Allies’ defence spending,” the statement reads.
The move reflects growing efforts to anchor support for Ukraine not as an exceptional policy, but as a fundamental component of collective security in the Euro–Atlantic space.
Moreover, NATO allies endorsed a major increase in their defense budgets, setting a target of 5% of GDP by 2035.
This includes a 3.5% allocation for core military capabilities and an additional 1.5% for broader defense and security needs, such as infrastructure development, innovation, and resilience-building.
Allies also pledged to accelerate transatlantic defense industrial cooperation by dismantling trade barriers and expanding joint innovation projects.
This push for integration aims to strengthen NATO’s technological edge and supply chain resilience amid growing geopolitical tensions.
The communiqué confirmed that Turkey will host the next NATO summit in 2026, followed by Albania in 2027.
This year’s summit focused on three strategic pillars: increasing defense spending, enhancing industrial capacity, and sustaining military support to Ukraine amid ongoing Russian aggression.
Read more on The Gaze: NATO Summit 2025: Will the Alliance Stand with Ukraine?