Netherlands to set up $1 billion NATO fund

The Netherlands announced it would be setting up a new NATO fund that aims to invest in startup tech companies in the region. The fund would be officially launched at the upcoming NATO summit in July.

The Dutch ministry of economic affairs issued a statement late on Monday, saying that the new NATO fund of over $1 billion would be set up in the country. The fund was announced last year and would be officially launched this year when the alliance holds its summit in July. NATO said last year that the fund would look to bring together governments, the private sector, and academia to bolster the alliance’s technological advantage.

“We expect that housing this fund in the Netherlands will make it easier for innovative Dutch startups to find their way to capital, stimulating solutions for both societal and military problems,” said the ministry.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the alliance’s members to boost their defense spending as the latest data showed less than a quarter of NATO countries meeting the target. Stoltenberg said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year showed how the world had become more dangerous, and NATO allies must respond by setting and meeting more defense spending goals.

Out of the 30 countries of the alliance, only seven met the current target of spending two percent of its GDP on defense in 2022 compared to eight in 2021 before Russia’s invasion, according to the estimates in the NATO chief’s annual report that was published on Tuesday. The United States, Greece, Lithuania, Poland, the United Kingdom, Estonia, and Latvia met the target for 2022, according to the report.

Stoltenberg said NATO expected two more members to meet the target, but their economies had grown by more than what was anticipated resulting in lower spending.

The alliance has been increasing its defense spending overall since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and entered Ukraine’s Donbas region in the same year. However, Russia’s invasion showed the need to increase spending even more.

“There’s no doubt that we need to do more and we need to do it faster,” Stoltenberg told reporters at the NATO headquarters in Brussels.