Portugal was the 9th North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member state to spend the lowest percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense in 2022, even though it was approaching the 2% of GDP target.
NATO’s Secretary General’s annual report, released this Tuesday, indicates that Portugal will spend 1.38% of GDP on defense in 2022, an increase but still below the 2% target set by NATO of GDP.
For this year, the government plans to increase spending to 1.66% – a target originally set for 2024 – and reach 2% by the end of the decade, Defense Minister Helena Carreiras announced in February On.
Luxembourg was the country with the lowest percentage of GDP spent on defense (0.62%). Greece was the NATO member state that invested the most in defense (3.54% of GDP), surpassing the United States of America (3.46%).
In weight of defense spending, Portugal was ahead of Turkey, Montenegro, the Czech Republic, Canada, Slovenia, Belgium, Spain and Luxembourg.
In February, the defense minister admitted that there is “pressure” from NATO for member states to invest a larger percentage of GDP in defense.
In July last year, NATO expected Portugal to reach 1.44% of GDP in defense spending, but the report found that investment fell short of what was expected at the time.
Defense has been an impoverished area for decades in most of the countries that are part of the military alliance, but the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 last year and the global proportions of the conflict, which to this day have not solution, in sight, forced NATO member states to spend more.
From 2014 to last year, most countries increased their spending, only Turkey and Montenegro invest less in defense today than they did back then.
Source: DN
