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US President Donald Trump claimed that Poland was one of the two countries that had previously reached the target of NATO for the defense costs of 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP), which recently increased 5% of GDP by 2035.
“Poland was one of the two countries that paid more than they had to pay with NATO,” the US President said. “I don’t know if anyone knows this, but these were two nations, and Poland paid more than it should,” he added.
Comments were made during a meeting with President of the Polish President Carol Navenka, who received Marginal victory In the Polish presidential election in May, after receiving the support of Trump.
But a closer view of the historical data of NATO on the obligations of the Allies on expenses show that Trump’s claims are inaccurate.
Up to ten NATO allies, including the United States, met the target in 2023, rising to 18 countries in 2024.
If we return for almost a decade, in 2014, when the target of NATO for 2% of the costs of GDP defense was agreed during the Wales summit, three countries – Greece, the United Kingdom and the United States itself have already reached the limit.
Other allied countries were in no hurry to respond to commitment.
Poland was the only country that increased its defense costs over 2% next year, but its expenses decreased below the standard from 2016 to 2019, according to NATO, consulted by Euroveirfy.
Poland has constantly reached the goal since 2020 and significantly increased its expenses after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Latvia and Estonia are also firmly achieved by their 2% goal since 2018 and 2019, respectively, according to NATO data.
This means that there was no year when Poland was one of the two union countries outside the United States, which reach their goal by 2%.
If we understand that Trump referred only to today’s EU member states, thereby excluding the UK, his demand is actually closer to reality.
However, only in 2105, Poland was among the two of today’s EU member states, along with Greece, which reached the goal.
The data provided by NATO diverge from other sources from the calculation method of both protective expenses and GDP forecasts.
The data provided by the World Bank show that in 2015 Poland was among the three EU member states – along with Greece and Estonia – which exceeded 2%, even more abandoning Trump’s accusations.
In June of this year, NATO allies promised an increased purpose of defense costs of 5% of GDP during the Hag Summit, after several months of increasing pressure from the Trump government.
It is expected that they will reach this goal by 2035.
According to the data, all European NATO and Canada allies will first reach the target of 2% of GDP for the first time this year. which he published Recently a military alliance. This has been happening for more than ten years since the goal was first established.
This should bear the expenses of allied from Europe and Canada to 2.27% of GDP, which increases to 2.76% of GDP if the US participation is taken into account.
According to forecasts, Poland will spend almost 4.5% of its GDP defense this year, more than any other NATO ally, which will make it the largest GDP today.