Talks ongoing over Nato defence spending target, says No 10

Discussions are ongoing about Nato spending targets, Downing Street has said, as the UK faces pressure from allies to increase its defence investment.

The government plans to increase military spending from 2.3% to 2.5% of national income by 2027, and has set an ambition to then increase it to 3% by 2034.

The increase will fund plans to move the UK to “war-fighting readiness”, as outlined in the government’s strategic review of defence on Monday.

But Nato chief Mark Rutte is pushing for members of the military alliance to commit 5% towards defence-related spending at a summit this month.

Rutte has proposed that Nato’s 32 members should commit to spending 3.5% on hard defence, and 1.5% on broader security areas, such as cyber, by 2032, according to Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

Some eastern European and Nordic countries have already said they will make pledges to increase defence spending to that level, in the run-up to the summit in the Netherlands on 24 June.

US President Donald Trump has demanded that Nato allies ramp up their military spending, and Rutte has been urging members to meet the target of 3.5% on hard defence ahead of the June meeting.

When asked if the UK would meet the 3.5% target, a spokesman for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK’s commitment to Nato was “unshakable”.

“We’re already the third highest contributor in cash terms to Nato,” the spokesman said.

“There will always be discussions about contributions before a conference.”

The spokesman said the government’s defence review “sets out a plan to meet the threats we face and continue to lead in Nato”.

The review described the UK’s defence policy as a Nato-first approach.

The run-up to the review’s release was dominated by a political row over when the government should pledge to meet its 3% spending target.

The Labour government says it wants to hit the target by 2034 at the latest, after the next general election.

But the Conservatives and Reform UK say the increase to that level should happen by the end of the decade.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has estimated that reaching 3% of GDP by 2030 would cost the UK government an additional £17.3bn.

A further uplift to 3.5% of GDP would have implications for the government’s spending plans.

In February, the prime minister said he would cut the foreign aid budget to fund a boost in military spending.

In an interview with the BBC on Monday, Sir Keir said he would not put a date on when the UK would meet the 3% target, arguing to do so without an idea of how it would be paid for would be “performative fantasy politics”.

Later that day, in response to a question at a news conference, Sir Keir said: “There are discussions about what the contribution should be going into the Nato conference in two or three weeks’ time.”

President Trump has long complained that allies do not pay enough towards their collective defence, and threatened the US would quit Nato over payments in 2018.

European countries have increased their spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

But Rutte, who has met Trump in recent months, wants Nato members to go further.

Last month, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said: “Rutte has sent a letter to all Nato members to say that he expects that the commitment at the Nato summit will be 3.5% on hard military spending, to be reached in 2032, and 1.5% on related spending such as on infrastructure, cyber security, and similar things also to be reached by 2032.”