Ankara, July 8, 2026 (Lusa) - NATO estimates that Portugal will reach 2.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in defence spending by the end of this year, representing an increase of nearly €600 million compared with 2025.

These figures appear in a report published by NATO, which sets out investment estimates for the 32 member states of the Atlantic Alliance, based on data collected up to 3 June.

According to this document, Portugal is expected to reach 2.10% of GDP by the end of this year, with expenditure of approximately €6.7 billion.

According to NATO, this figure represents an increase of nearly €600 million compared with 2025, given that, in the estimate for that year, Portugal allocated €6.1 billion to this sector.

The same report estimates that Portugal has met the 2.01% target for 2025, a figure that the defence minister, Nuno Melo, had already put forward in parliament.

If these figures are confirmed, Portugal will have seen its defence investment rise by €1.6 billion between 2024 and 2025 – the largest annual increase in defence spending of the last decade – to just €600 million between last year and this year.

Portugal is following the trend seen in most European countries and Canada, against a backdrop of reduced investment by the United States in NATO and following the Alliance’s latest summit, in The Hague, the Netherlands, having set a new target of 5% of GDP by 2035 (3.5% for ‘pure defence expenditure’ such as the armed forces, equipment and training, and 1.5% for investments such as infrastructure and industry).

The NATO summit in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, concludes on Wednesday at the Presidential Palace, with three main issues on the agenda: defence investment, boosting industrial production and support for Ukraine.

ARL/ADB // ADB.

Lusa