TALLINN (dpa-AFX) – Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal supports the new US President Donald Trump’s call to spend five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. “We know our opponent and I completely agree – our goal should be five percent,” wrote the Prime Minister of the EU and NATO state that borders Russia on Platform X.
Michal pointed out that his country’s defense spending is expected to amount to 3.7 percent of GDP in 2026. In order to reach 5 percent, Estonia must bring forward a number of investments in the defense sector. The Estonian head of government wrote that financing should not come from tax increases, but should come from various sources such as EU funds, cuts in the public sector and intelligent borrowing. And added that he was ready for discussions about this in Estonia and with his European colleagues.
So far, the rule within NATO is that member states should each spend at least two percent of their GDP on defense. Before his inauguration, Trump had demanded that the allies spend five percent in the future. For Germany and many others, this would mean that they would have to more than double their defense spending. Poland also recently supported Trump’s demands. Warsaw spent an estimated 4.2 percent of its GDP on defense in 2024 – a peak in the EU and NATO./awe/DP/nas