Estonia Agrees to Meet Trump’s 5 Percent Target for Defense Spending

A French soldier takes part in a major drill as part of a NATO exercise at the Tapa army camp near Rakvere, Estonia, on Feb. 5, 2022. Alain Jocard/AFP via Getty Images

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal has said his country will match Lithuania’s pledge to meet President Donald Trump’s request for NATO countries to devote 5 percent of GDP to defense spending.

Michal told the Financial Times: “Our key security partner, under its new president, has sent a clear message: NATO defense spending must increase. We know our opponent, and I fully agree. Our goal should be 5 percent.”

He accepted that there would have to be “public sector cuts” to fund the extra defense spending, but did not go into details.

On Jan. 17, Lithuania announced it would boost its defense spending to between 5 percent and 6 percent, up from its current level of 3.7 percent.

Both Lithuania and Estonia are former republics of the Soviet Union that became independent in 1990 and 1991, respectively.

Lithuania shares a border with Russia, and its heavily militarized Kaliningrad exclave, and has repeatedly emphasized the need to bolster its defenses.

Lithuania’s foreign minister, Kestutis Budrys, told the Financial Times Europe was facing a “new era.”

‘Constructive Pressure’ From Trump

Budrys said: “Of course, there’s pressure, and it’s good and constructive pressure from our strategic and biggest ally in NATO. We cannot ignore those messages. But it’s not the sole reason. ... It is existential for us to have real war-fighting capabilities here.”

Budrys said Lithuania, which currently spends 2.9 percent of GDP on defense, would fund the extra spending through government borrowing.

On Jan. 22, EU foreign policy chief and Vice-President Kaja Kallas said, “Russia poses an existential threat to our security today, tomorrow, and for as long as we underinvest in our defense.”

Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, added: “People say I’m a ‘Russia hawk.’ I think I’m simply realistic about Russia.”

Poland, which also has a border with Russia’s Kaliningrad enclave and is next door to Ukraine, recently backed Trump’s call for NATO countries to meet the 5 percent target.

NATO was founded in 1949 and has 32 members, including Finland and Sweden, who joined in 2023 and 2024, respectively.

The organization is holding a summit in The Hague in June, and Secretary-General Mark Rutte is expected to suggest increasing the defense spending target for NATO members from the current 2 percent to 3 percent or higher, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Germany, France, and Britain have balked at increasing defense spending significantly above 2 percent.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at a Jan. 13 election event in Bielefeld, Germany, said, “Five percent would be over 200 billion euros [$209 billion] per year, the federal budget is not even 500 billion euros ($523 billion).”

“That would only be possible with massive tax increases or massive cuts to many things that are important to us,” he said, as reported by the DPA news agency.

But on Jan. 12, Poland’s defense minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, told the Financial Times, “There are some big European countries whose opinion was not always the right one, and that in relation to Russia they were wrong.”

Poland, which only joined NATO in 1999, currently spends the highest proportion of GDP of all NATO countries, at 4.7 percent.

A map shows Europe after Finland and Sweden joined NATO. Illustration by The Epoch Times

Spain is one of the lowest spenders, at just 1.5 percent of GDP. Rutte is due to visit Madrid on Jan. 27 for tough talks with socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

Albert Swidzinski, director of analyses at Warsaw-based think tank Strategy and Future, recently told The Epoch Times: “The basic reality is that those states that are directly, existentially threatened by Russia and Russia’s attempt to recreate the sphere of influence it had, will spend the money necessary. They will be willing to sacrifice other programs in order to enhance their security situation.

“But those countries west of Poland—that’s Germany, France, the UK, Spain, you name it—those states are not existentially threatened by Russia. So those countries who are less exposed to the risk emanating from Russia will be unwilling, I believe, to up their defense spending so significantly.”