NATO’s Newest Member Outspending Longtime Participants on Defense

STOCKHOLM, Sweden—Sweden is the newest NATO member, and it’s already outpacing more than half of its fellow member nations on defense spending.  

“And of course, we did not join NATO just to get security guarantees, but also to be a security provider,” Swedish Minister of Defense Pal Jonson told The Daily Signal.  

Sweden formally joined NATO in March of 2024 and is already spending 2.5% of its gross domestic product on defense, outpacing 21 of its fellow members, including the United Kingdom, Hungary, France, and Canada. Sweden plans to spend 2.8% of its GDP on defense by the end of 2026, and 3.5% by 2030, five years ahead of the agreed defense spending minimum that was decided at the annual NATO summit in June.  

“This is a time for us to … shoulder a larger responsibility for Europe by creating a stronger European pillar inside NATO, because the U.S. also has security challenges elsewhere … and, therefore, we put our money where our mouth is,” Jonson said.  

Leaders in Sweden opposed joining NATO for years, but after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden began taking steps to join the security alliance. There are currently 32 member countries in NATO.  

In just four years, Sweden has doubled its defense budget, according to Jonson. It is “necessary” for Europe to increase defense spending after “decades of negligence and under-investment,” he added.  

Canada joined NATO in 1949 and has a population north of 41 million, compared with Sweden’s 10.5 million, but Canada spent 2.01% of its GDP on defense in 2025. Similarly, Italy, with a population of about 59 million, and Spain, a country of more than 48 million, are both longtime NATO members, but are estimated to have spent about 2% of their respective GDPs on defense in 2025.  

Spain has rejected NATO’s plan for all member countries to spend 3.5% of defense spending, and an additional 1.5% on civil preparedness, protection of infrastructure, and the like, by 2035.  

Russia is spending about 7% of its GDP on military expenditures, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.  

While Russia is “not impressive on the battlefield in Ukraine,” it does “have tenacity,” the Swedish defense minister said.  

“They have resilience. They put their economy and their defense industry on the war footing. They act recklessly, and they take political and military risks,” Jonson said. “And the best way for us to secure and live in peace is to invest into our security, but also supporting Ukraine, because supporting Ukraine is actually both the right thing to do and the smart thing to do, because Ukraine is pretty pivotal for [the] whole of Europe’s security.”  

It will take both military and economic pressure to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table in earnest, the Swedish defense chief said.  

“Sometimes people say that Putin is provoked by strength. No, he’s provoked by weakness, and he will try to exploit weakness as well,” Jonson said. “And that’s where we’re supporting the Ukrainians, and that’s why we’re dedicated to keeping NATO strong, so it can deter and defend every inch of allied territory.”  

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