BRUSSELS: NATO said on Wednesday that it was increasing its military budget for 2024 by 12% to 2.03 billion euros and its civil budget by 18.2% to 438.1 million euros.

Increasing and broadening the use of NATO common funding allows allies to more effectively address shared security challenges, NATO said in the statement announcing the increase.

NATO’s Stoltenberg expects allies to lift defence spending target

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