Minister Guido Crosetto said NATO has called on allies to invest at least 2 percent of GDP in Defense "because this parameter will be considered in the future as a baseline for the Alliance's renewed needs". He also said that "it will be important to spend even beyond 2 percent, considering previous years of underinvestment". Illustrating the outcomes of the recent NATO summit, Crosetto explained that Italy will continue in the biennium to fall short of the target. "At the moment," he said, "our national plans foresee that Italy will stand at 1.46 percent in 2023 and then drop to 1.43 percent in 2024: this is a trend in the negative and, as you can see, we are very far from 2 percent". "I hope," the minister added, "because I think there is a need, that we will be able to comply with the pact, because otherwise we would find ourselves to be the last country as an investment in military spending".
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