00:00After months of pressure from US President Donald Trump,
00:06NATO leaders in The Hague are prepared to agree on raising military spending to 5% of GDP.
00:14But what does that 5% consist of?
00:21The biggest chunk, 3.5%, would be devoted to military hardware,
00:27tanks, jets, drones, soldiers, plus tons of new artillery ammunition.
00:36What about the remaining 1.5%?
00:40NATO calls it defense and security related investments,
00:45in other words, civilian and IT infrastructure designed to enhance and support military operations.
00:53For example, bridges, roads, ports, as well as cybersecurity and energy pipeline protection.
01:02However, experts, including the Bertelsmann Stiftung Foundation,
01:06argue that this part of the budget is vague and open to national interpretations.
01:13The devil is indeed in the details.
01:17A NATO letter sent to the Spanish Prime Minister on Sunday seems to suggest
01:22that the 5% threshold might not be binding.
01:26Spain, for example, will have the flexibility to determine its own path
01:32for reaching the capability targets set by NATO,
01:36with more countries possibly advancing the same requests.
01:41How united can the Alliance really be in its defense strategy while facing unprecedented threats?
Comments