NATO increases military budget to $2.1B for 2023

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - NATO allies on Wednesday agreed to increase the alliance’s civil and military budgets for 2023, reflecting higher ambitions for the new security reality.

“The civil budget is set at €370.8 million ($394 million), and the military budget is set at €1.96 billion ($2.1 billion), representing a 27.8% and 25.8% increase, respectively, over 2022,” a NATO statement said.

Welcoming the move, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the budget increase is a “concrete expression of the higher level of ambition” to achieve the goal set by the NATO allies at Madrid Summit in June.

"We must continue to invest more and better together in NATO," he said.

The civil budget provides funds for personnel, operating costs, and program expenditures of NATO’s headquarters and its international staff. The military budget covers the operating costs of NATO Command Structure headquarters, missions, and operations around the world.

In addition to the civil and military budgets, the 2023 ceiling for the NATO Security Investment Program (NSIP) was set at €1 billion, representing an increase of 26.6%.

The NSIP covers major construction and command and control system investments.