Why Poland backs Trump on raising Nato spending to 5% of GDP

Poland is supporting President-elect Donald Trump’s appeal for Nato countries to allocate 5 per cent of their GDP to defence, according to a report.

As of now, Poland is the closest, allocating 4.12 per cent of its GDP to defence in 2024 and aiming to increase that to 4.7 per cent this year. In comparison, the US spent 3.4 per cent of its GDP on defence last year.

Trump’s request for alliance members to significantly increase their defence budgets has drawn mixed responses from Europe’s financially constrained governments.

According to the Politico report, citing an interview with the Financial Times published on Sunday, Poland’s defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said that Warsaw can serve as “the transatlantic link” between Europe and the challenges posed by the incoming US president.

Kosiniak-Kamysz said that it “will take another decade” to reach Trump’s proposed goal, but that the president-elect “should not be criticised for setting a really ambitious target because otherwise there will be some countries that will continue to debate whether more spending is really needed.”

Last month, Trump’s demand that Nato allies spend 5% of their annual GDP on defence shook up European capitals.

“I think Nato should have 5%,” Trump had said at a press conference. “They can all afford it,” he added.

That is a whopping increase from the 2% pledge that Nato allies agreed on but which has proven difficult for several European nations. It’s also even higher than the 4% he called during his last term as president.

At a Nato summit in Washington last year, the military alliance revealed that at least two-thirds of its members spent 2% or more on defence this year, and only Poland crossed the 4% mark.

No Nato member currently spends 5% of GDP on defence, according to alliance figures. Poland is the highest spender at 4.12% of GDP, followed by Estonia (3.43%) and the US (3.38%). Italy spent 1.49% of GDP on defence in 2024, which was likely a topic when Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni met Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate recently.

With inputs from agencies