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The Italian government has admitted that the defense spending balance is not impressive, but that the country "is not empty-handed" to proudly present itself at the NATO table.
Italian government officials justify the situation by citing examples from other member states, stating that "the Dutch have included military pension funds in NATO spending, and no one has objected."
On the eve of the Alliance summit in Ankara, where leaders will gather for an official dinner opposite US President Donald Trump, a silent competition is expected to take place among member states to show their progress in fulfilling their defense commitments.
Under targets agreed at the Hague summit last year, NATO countries have committed to gradually increasing defense spending to 5% of Gross Domestic Product by 2035, a target pushed mainly by the United States.
Currently, Italy is presented with a spending level of around 2.8% of GDP, while some of the new plans remain uncertain due to the freezing of several military programs in recent months.
The target for a further increase of around 0.5% in the period 2027–2029, which would translate into over 12 billion additional euros, is still considered only a medium-term plan with unclear feasibility, considering the state of public finances.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has stated that the country has achieved a recent growth of 0.7%, but according to critics, this increase mainly includes general security spending and not military spending in the narrow sense.
In previous years, Italy had increased its spending levels by including categories such as the Coast Guard, a methodology that had been accepted at a technical level by NATO.
However, it remains unclear whether the latest increase will be fully accepted by the alliance, as it has not been clearly specified which items are included in this additional 0.7%.
In this context, experts warn that uncertainties and delays in defense investments could feed US President Donald Trump's narrative that the burden of Europe's security remains primarily with the United States.
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