The Countries Doing the Most for NATO

By Austin Smith Published Aug 21, 7:30AM EDT

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The Countries Doing the Most for NATO — © Poland location on map with red thumbtack, travel idea, Warsaw and Poland on map with a red fastener, vacation and road trip concept, pinned destination, top view (Shutterstock.com) by HakanGider

Key Points:

23 NATO members now meet the 2% defense spending target, including the U.S., U.K., and Greece.
Poland leads with over 4%, and the Baltic states have significantly increased spending due to proximity to Russia.
Central Europe is also making strong progress.
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Austin Smith and Michael Muir shift their focus to the countries meeting NATO’s 2% GDP defense spending commitment. While the U.S., the UK, and Greece continue to meet their obligations, significant progress has been made by the Baltic states and Poland. Poland now leads NATO in defense spending as a percentage of GDP, surpassing 4%. The Baltic states have also significantly increased their spending, driven by their geographic proximity to Russia and historical memories of Soviet domination. Michael notes that Central Europe is also showing strong progress in meeting the 2% target.

Transcript:

You mentioned something at the beginning, which is that the majority of countries are now meeting their NATO threshold at their 2%.

So let’s talk about that.

Let’s go to the other side of the ledger.

Who is meeting the 2% and what do we need to know about that cohort?

Well, yeah, I don’t think we have time to go through every single one of the 23 members, but the highlights, I’d say, well, so from the original agreement, the US, the UK, and Greece are still meeting their obligations, still moving in the right direction.

Greece’s percentage of GDP spending on defense has declined slightly, but they’re still way above two percent.

So there’s no danger they’re going to drop anytime soon.

But the biggest change has been in the Baltic states and Poland.

Poland actually is number one for defense spending as a percentage of GDP.

They’re over four percent now.

The Baltic states really stepped up.

And of course, I think the main explanation for that is its geographic proximity and, of course, historical memory of being under Soviet dominion, so they obviously don’t want to go back to that.

Other states, Central Europe is looking pretty solid.

About the Author Austin Smith →

Austin Smith is a financial publisher with over two decades of experience in the markets. He spent over a decade at The Motley Fool as a senior editor for Fool.com, portfolio advisor for Millionacres, and launched new brands in the personal finance and real estate investing space.

His work has been featured on Fool.com, NPR, CNBC, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, MSN, AOL, Marketwatch, and many other publications. Today he writes for 24/7 Wall St and covers equities, REITs, and ETFs for readers. He is as an advisor to private companies, and co-hosts The AI Investor Podcast.

When not looking for investment opportunities, he can be found skiing, running, or playing soccer with his children. Learn more about me here.