The 2025 NATO summit is now underway in the Hague, with leaders of the Western political and defense coalition eyeing multiple global conflicts— Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Gaza, United States-Iran.

But the 32 members are entering this round of talks having already agreed on a key theme: the need to spend more on defense.

This week, NATO allies are set to agree to boost the amount members spend on their domestic armed forces from 2% of GDP to 5% of GDP.

“We're talking about hundreds of billions of dollars. I mean, it's a lot of money,” said Zachary Paikin, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

And while President Donald Trump has famously berated NATO members over defense spending, “U.S. presidents dating back to Barack Obama have been urging Europeans to spend more on defense,” Paikin said. “It looks like finally they're beginning to take that seriously now.”

So, U.S. pressure is one reason for the boost in spending.

“And as a result, of course, of Russia's war in 2022 and full-scale invasion of Ukraine, we've seen a significant increase in defense investment,” said Anca Agachi, a defense policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. “As of last year, 23 out of 32 allies were spending 2% and this year in 2025, all 32 will be spending minimum 2%.”

The NATO members are giving themselves until about 2035 to reach the new 5% target, with 3.5% going to new equipment and the remaining 1.5% going to “defense-related investments,” like cybersecurity and infrastructure.

“They're trying to build their own capabilities so that they could provide for their own security with maybe the United States as a backup,” said Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for International and Strategic Studies.

Member countries will have to decide whether they want to focus on developing their own defense industries or just buy more equipment and weapons on the global market.

“The United States has been a major supplier for decades, but also more recently, you see countries like Brazil, South Korea is moving very aggressively,” Cancian said.

Trump has said the new spending target won’t apply to the U.S., which spends more on its military than the next nine countries combined.