Amid President Donald Trump’s repeated claims that NATO members rely too much on the United States for defense and don’t spend enough on their own security, leaders from all nations in the alliance are gathering in Turkey to demonstrate progress on last year’s spending pledges.
At a summit to be held in The Hague in 2025, the allies set a goal of spending 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense and related security spending by 2035.
Interest in the two-day summit has increased further after President Trump announced the withdrawal of troops from Europe and the Pentagon conducted a six-month review of the U.S. military presence in Europe.
According to NATO, the United States and Germany are the largest contributors to the alliance’s operating costs, estimated at 5.3 billion euros ($6.06 billion) in 2026. This includes costs such as operating the entire organization and its military headquarters.
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NATO also collects defense spending data from its allies. These are not part of NATO’s operating budget. Member states reported spending a total of approximately $1.64 trillion on national defense in 2025. The United States reported a defense budget of $980 billion, about 60 percent of the alliance’s total defense spending.
Defense spending as a share of GDP has declined since 1986, when Cold War priorities and the United States’ role as NATO’s primary nuclear deterrent against the Soviet Union prompted increases in defense spending. NATO reported that the United States’ GDP in 2025 is estimated to exceed $30 trillion.
How much do each country contribute to the NATO budget?
Here we take a look at how the top countries contribute compared to NATO’s GDP and how their contribution has changed since 2014.
Trump talks about NATO spending
For years, President Trump’s position on the spending levels of his European allies has been largely consistent. He argued that member states should spend more on defense, reducing the burden on the United States. In a March 2016 interview with the Washington Post Editorial Board, then-candidate Trump noted the size of the United States’ financial obligations to the alliance.
“NATO costs us a lot of money, and certainly we protect Europe with NATO, but it costs us a lot of money,” he said. “I think we need to change the allocation of costs.”
Here are some of his past statements on NATO spending:
Which countries are members of NATO?
NATO was founded as a defense alliance and currently has 32 members in North America and Europe. It was founded in 1949 in response to post-World War II security concerns and the growing threat posed by the Soviet Union.
The list of other leaders who may attend includes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, European Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who are expected to attend a dinner with NATO leaders on July 7.
Source North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Reuters; ABC News
This story has been updated to correct a spelling error.
