Foreign Minister Welcomes NATO Commitment to Increase Defense Spending

Hungary has a great opportunity thanks to NATO’s recent commitment, according to which member states are required increase their defense spending to at least five percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) within ten years, said Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on Tuesday in The Hague.

Reporting on the first day of the NATO Summit, the Minister highlighted that U.S. President Donald Trump attended his first North Atlantic Alliance meeting eight years ago, and since then, all member states have theoretically met the target of spending at least two percent of their GDP on defense. Hungary has been doing so for three years now. He said it was important that the allied states had now set a target, in line with Donald Trump’s proposal, to spend five percent of their GDP on defense in two categories within ten years.

The Hungarian politician explained that in recent years, Hungary has made significant investments in the defense industry, a sector for which demand is expected to grow in the near future,

hence this commitment also holds “significant economic development opportunities for our country.”

He also pointed out that NATO members are obliged to spend 20 percent of their defense budgets on development and procurement, and that Hungary is among the leaders in this area. “Last year, we ranked fourth in the alliance with a value of 45 percent. This means that Hungary spends almost half of its defense budget on modernization, new equipment, and development in order to guarantee the security of Hungary, the Hungarian people, and Hungarian families in times of danger and crisis,” he emphasized.

Minister Szijjártó pointed out that for the first time since 2022, the focus of the military organization’s summit is not on even stronger support for Ukraine, but on strengthening collective defense. He also welcomed the fact that for the first time, Ukraine’s NATO membership has been “openly, clearly, and unambiguously” removed from the agenda, as evidenced by the fact that the country’s president has not been invited to the official part of the meeting and can only attend the informal dinner.

I am convinced that by removing Ukraine’s NATO membership from the agenda, the world has become a safer place (…) If Ukraine had become a member of NATO, it would have led to a direct confrontation between the North Atlantic Alliance and Russia, and such a direct confrontation would obviously have been tantamount to the outbreak of World War III,”

he said.

The upcoming @NATO Summit is the first one since 2022 where focus is not on stepping up support for Ukraine, but on strengthening the Alliance & collective defence. With ’s NATO membership off the agenda, direct confrontation with has been avoided. Rationality has prevailed. pic.twitter.com/ZwkEbR9tPO

— Péter Szijjártó (@FM_Szijjarto) June 24, 2025

The Minister praised the U.S. President’s peace efforts and expressed his hope that NATO would finally unite behind this policy after more than three and a half years of war in Ukraine, which can only end at the negotiating table, not on the battlefield. “Donald Trump has the best chance of achieving this. That is why we hope that this time, NATO allies will take advantage of these two days here in The Hague and unite behind Donald Trump, as we Hungarians have done,” he noted.

He also pointed out that Hungary is not only working for its own security, but also for the security of its allies. As a good example of this, he mentioned that the Hungarian Air Force is performing air policing tasks in the airspace of Slovakia, Croatia, and Slovenia, and that from August, the Hungarian contingent will return to the Baltic States for the fourth time for four months with four aircraft and 80 personnel.

MTI, Featured image: Honvedelem.hu