“Portugal has started to increase its defence budget and we see that, with the economic growth that it is recording, there is more scope for increasing defence spending,” Stoltenberg said at a news conference in Brussels on Tuesday, on the eve of a meeting of NATO defence ministers.
The NATO secretary-general recalled that each member has submitted a plan outlining how it will achieve the commitment made in 2014, when at a summit in Wales the allies agreed that, within a decade - to 2024 - they would ensure defence spending reached two percent of GDP.
At present, Portugal channels the equivalent of 1.32 percent of GDP into defence.
Stoltenberg hailed the five percent growth in overall defence spending last year by NATO members, saying that this was “much larger” than could have been foreseen in 2014.
“After years of decline, since 2014 we’ve seen growth in investment in defence all across Europe,” he said. “National plans show that we can expect still greater growth. This year we expected eight allies to attain the two percent goal, and by 2024 another 15 countries will do it.”
While all this represents “substantial progress”, he said, there is still a long way to go.
Stoltenberg also took the opportunity to dismiss ideas that increased investment in defence by the European Union could lead to it competing with NATO in some way, saying that its efforts would be “complementary”.