North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, March 26, 2026. NATO countries continued to raise defense spending in 2025, with total expenditure expected to exceed 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars, according to the organization's annual report released on Thursday. (Xinhua/Peng Ziyang)

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries continued to raise defense spending in 2025, with total expenditure expected to exceed 1.4 trillion US dollars, according to the organization's annual report released on Thursday.

The report said European NATO members and Canada sharply increased military spending, with their combined defense outlays reaching 574 billion US dollars in 2025, up 20 percent in real terms from a year earlier.

All NATO members met or exceeded the alliance's longstanding target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense in 2025, the report said, adding that Poland, Lithuania and Latvia achieved NATO's new target of allocating 3.5 percent of GDP to core defense spending.

At the summit in The Hague in June 2025, NATO leaders agreed to raise annual defense-related spending to 5 percent of GDP by 2035. Under the plan, 3.5 percent would go to core defense needs, while the remaining 1.5 percent would be allocated to broader security-related areas such as protecting critical infrastructure and strengthening cybersecurity.

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte speaks at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, March 26, 2026. NATO countries continued to raise defense spending in 2025, with total expenditure expected to exceed 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars, according to the organization's annual report released on Thursday. (Xinhua/Peng Ziyang)