“Obviously, the goal is to be met, we need to have a credible trajectory in this matter, the goal was 2% in 2030, so that’s what has been agreed, let’s see how we can make our response credible”, maintained Paulo Rangel.

During the campaign for the legislative elections on March 10, the president of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, had already rejected that Portugal brought forward the established target, despite insistent appeals from the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, and even the United States.

According to the 2023 NATO Secretary General's report, Portugal invested around 1.48% of GDP in the defence area, below the 1.66% predicted by the previous Government.

At last year's NATO summit, allied countries committed to investing at least 2% of GDP in defence, to respond to the growing militarization of Russia and other countries whose geopolitical influence worries the Atlantic Alliance.

Jens Stoltenberg's report shows that in 2023 only 11 of the 31 member states (at the time Sweden had not yet joined) counted had reached the minimum target.

Poland led the ranking, investing 3.94% of GDP in the Armed Forces.