III 119THCONGRESS 1 STSESSION S. RES. 75 Expressing the sense of the Senate that member countries of NATO must commit at least 2 percent of their national gross domestic product to national defense spending to hold leadership or benefit at the expense of those counties who meet their obligations. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY12, 2025 Mr. T ILLIS(for himself, Mr. JUSTICE, Mr. CORNYN, Mr. SHEEHY, Mr. LEE, Mr. D AINES, and Mrs. CAPITO) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the Senate that member countries of NATO must commit at least 2 percent of their na- tional gross domestic product to national defense spend- ing to hold leadership or benefit at the expense of those counties who meet their obligations. Whereas, in 2014, the heads of state and governments of the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza- tion (commonly known as ‘‘NATO’’) renewed their earlier commitment to invest 2 percent of their national gross domestic product (referred to in this preamble as ‘‘GDP’’) to defense spending to help ensure the continued military readiness of NATO; VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:59 Feb 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6300 E:\BILLS\SR75.IS SR75 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •SRES 75 IS Whereas NATO considers the 2 percent commitment as a floor and not a ceiling for what member countries of NATO have committed to invest in their national defense efforts; Whereas the current global security environment has caused the current leadership of NATO and the United States to consider raising this commitment even higher; Whereas 23 of the 31 member countries spent at least 2 per- cent of their GDP on national defense in 2024; Whereas, since the year 2000, NATO has lost almost $2,000,000,000,000 in mutual defense spending capa- bility from member countries not meeting the commit- ment of 2 percent of their GDP towards defense; and Whereas it is in the interest of all member countries to meet the 2 percent minimum commitment or have a plan in place to do so before the opening session of the NATO Summit in The Hague, which is scheduled to take place in June 2025: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that— 1 (1) any citizen of a member country of the 2 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (commonly 3 known as ‘‘NATO’’) that is not meeting its commit-4 ment to spend 2 percent of its gross domestic prod-5 uct (referred to in this resolution as ‘‘GDP’’) on na-6 tional defense should not be allowed to hold any po-7 sition within the leadership of NATO, including po-8 sitions such as— 9 (A) the Secretary General of NATO; 10 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:59 Feb 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR75.IS SR75 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 •SRES 75 IS (B) the Deputy Secretary General of 1 NATO; 2 (C) any Assistant Secretaries General of 3 NATO; 4 (D) the NATO Spokesperson; and 5 (E) any uniformed military leadership or 6 command positions within the structure of 7 NATO at the 2-star (OF–7) level or above; and 8 (2) any member country of NATO that fails to 9 meet its commitment to spend 2 percent of its GDP 10 on national defense should not be allowed to host 11 any significant formal or informal meetings, con-12 ferences, or summits of NATO at the ministerial 13 level or above, outside established routine corporate 14 processes of NATO that direct military operations or 15 coordination at a headquarters location, that would 16 provide substantial economic benefit to the economy 17 and enable the ability for that member country to 18 receive international recognition, including— 19 (A) the NATO Summit; 20 (B) meetings of NATO Ministers of For-21 eign Affairs; 22 (C) NATO Parliamentary Assembly ses-23 sions; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:59 Feb 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\SR75.IS SR75 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •SRES 75 IS (D) the NATO Youth Summit or similar 1 events. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:59 Feb 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\SR75.IS SR75 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB