EU’s Kaja Kallas says Europe must spend more on defence

Alliance members committed to spending at least 2% of GDP on defence after Russian forces seized Ukraine’s southern peninsula of Crimea and Moscow-backed proxies took control large areas of eastern Ukraine in 2014.

As Estonian prime minister, Kallas pledged more than 1% of the country’s GDP to Kyiv to help bolster Ukraine’s war effort.

“If every Nato country did this, Ukraine would win,” she told the BBC last year.

According to Nato estimates for 2024, external, Estonia’s defence spending as a proportion of GDP was the second highest in the military alliance.

In December 2024, Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte said member states would have to “shift to a wartime mindset” and spend “considerably more than 2%” on defence.

During his first term, US President Donald Trump put pressure on Nato members to increase defence spending and later called for a commitment to meet 4% of GDP.

Shortly before his second inauguration in January, Trump urged Nato’s European members to spend 5%, telling reporters: “They can all afford it.”

When asked whether she saw the war concluding in Ukraine’s favour, Kallas said that was “absolutely” still alive in her mind.

“I don’t see any other option really. I mean, if we let the brutal aggression flourish, then we will see this in other parts of the world,” she added.

She said: “All the aggressors or would-be aggressors in the world are clearly taking notes how we react to Russia’s aggression.”