Romania’s defence expenditures amounted to 1.92% of the GDP in 2018, below the target of 2%, according to the NATO estimates.
Romania is thus on the eighth position within the North Atlantic Alliance in terms of the share of local resources allocated to the Army, a NATO report released on Thursday reads, according to ziare.com.
Expenditures for equipment acquisition represent 34.4% of the total amount, the third largest level after Luxembourg (which has defence expenditures of 0.54% of GDP) and Latvia (2% of GDP for defence).
The report reads that two thirds of the NATO overall expenditures were made by the United States, i.e. USD 6-5 billion. The US has spent 3.39% of the GDP, as compared to the other countries’ average of 1.48% of the GDP. Only six countries, except the US, have reached the target of 2% of GDP for defence: Greece, UK, Estonia, Poland, Latvia and Lithuania.
Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland are the only NATO member states with laws or political agreements providing for allocating 2% of the GDP for defence.
At the end of 2018, Romania had 69,000 military, up by 11.2% against 2017, the NATO figures reveal, the same source informs.