On Wednesday, the 14th of December, NATO member states agreed to considerably increase the alliance’s shared budget due to the emerging security concerns and challenges in eastern Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The alliance’s civil budget for 2023 will be increased by 28% to EUR 370.8 million, whereas the military budget for 2023 is set at EUR 1.96 billion, which is 26% higher when compared with 2022, as announced by NATO.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed this decision, saying this is ‘a concrete expression of a higher level of ambition’ among member states.
«Only North America and Europe, working together in a strong NATO, can keep our one billion people safe in a more dangerous world,» he said in a press statement.
This year NATO’s civil and military budgets combined reached EUR 1.8 billion. This is very little when compared to individual countries’ defence budgets. USA, for example, has already spend EUR 769 billion on defence this year alone. Germany has spent EUR 55.6 billion.
According to the current distribution of contributions to the alliance, USA and Germany contribute the lion’s share to NATO’s shared costs. In 2021 these two countries covered approximately 16.3% of the alliance’s costs, providing approximately EUR 400 million to NATO’s needs.
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