NATO leaders issued a four-paragraph statement yesterday that is likely one of the shortest on record. “We reaffirm our ironclad commitment to collective defense as enshrined in Article 5 of the Washington Treaty—that an attack on one is an attack on all. We remain united and steadfast in our resolve to protect our 1 billion citizens, defend the Alliance, and safeguard our freedom and democracy,” they said in the first paragraph.
In paragraph two, they promised to invest 5% of GDP annually “on core defense requirements as well as defense- and security-related spending by 2035 to ensure our individual and collective obligations, in accordance with Article 3 of the Washington Treaty.” The third paragraph specifies that 3.5% of GDP will be spent on military forces while 1.5% is to be spent on security-related investment in infrastructure and related other measures.
Ukraine seems to have gotten short shrift. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was there, had some bilateral meetings, and participated in the NATO defense industry forum, but there was no meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, and no reaffirmation of the inevitability of Ukraine’s membership in the alliance. “Allies reaffirm their enduring sovereign commitments to provide support to Ukraine, whose security contributes to ours, and, to this end, will include direct contributions towards Ukraine’s defense and its defense industry when calculating Allies’ defense spending,” the statement said.
