BREAKING: Romania spends only 1.6% of GDP on defense in 2023, falling short of the 2.5% promise by President Iohannis and lagging behind the Netherlands in new weapons and equipment acquisitions

In 2023, Romania allocated only 1.6% of its GDP to defense, according to an official NATO report cited by TVR Info. This percentage is significantly lower than the 2.5% GDP commitment made by President Klaus Iohannis. With this level of spending, Romania falls below the NATO average of 1.73% of GDP and the minimum threshold of 2% of GDP. Notably, Romania spent a smaller percentage of its GDP on defense than the Netherlands, which allocated 1.63% of its GDP.

It’s worth mentioning that President Klaus Iohannis is competing against Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the NATO Secretary-General position. One of Iohannis’s campaign promises, as reported by Politico, is precisely to increase the defense budget.

„Read here the official NATO Report”

„We all need to do everything in our power to reach the minimum of 2% of GDP for defense spending and to invest at least 20% in major equipment as soon as possible,” Iohannis wrote in an electoral article titled „A Vision for NATO’s Future.”

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The NATO report further reveals that Romania only met the mandatory 2% GDP target for defense spending in 2020, when it allocated 2.01% of its GDP. Moreover, the country has seen consistent year-on-year declines over the last three years, with the 2023 figure of 1.6% of GDP being the lowest since 2017.

It’s noteworthy that the decrease in defense budget coincided with an annual increase in the budget deficit.

In terms of actual investment in equipment, Romania’s performance is even worse compared to its total budget: it ranks among the bottom five NATO countries, allocating only 21.9% of its defense budget to equipment. Poland leads significantly in new weapon expenditures (53.6% of the total defense budget), followed by Finland, Luxembourg, Hungary, and Greece. The Netherlands also outpaces Romania in this area, dedicating 25.5% of its total defense budget to equipment.

In absolute figures, Romania’s defense budget in 2023 was $5.6 billion, compared to the Netherlands’ $16.5 billion.