NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned Thursday of growing gaps in global military capabilities due to the economic crisis, but refused to "name and shame" those members of the alliance not living up to spending targets.
In 2012, only a handful of NATO's 28 member states achieved the bloc's self-imposed goal of spending 2 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, a fifth of which is to be invested into major equipment purchases, according to its annual report published Thursday.
"Security threats won't go away while we focus on fixing our economies," Rasmussen said.
Downward spending trends could create disparities among European NATO members and a growing gap between European and Northern American allies, as well as giving emerging powers a greater capability to exert a global influence, Rasmussen warned.
However, he said he would "resist the temptation to enter the slippery slope" of naming and shaming individual nations that failed to live up to NATO's expectations.
"Even nations that have made very deep cuts in defence budgets have preserved their ability to deploy armed forces in NATO-led international operations," Rasmussen said.
The United States, Britain, Estonia and Greece were the only NATO members expected to spend more than 2 per cent of GDP on defence in 2012, according to June estimates published in NATO's annual report.
Rasmussen laid out NATO's defence strategy adapted to economic realities, focusing on greater cooperation between NATO allies - both in terms of shared equipment and the ability to work together - as agreed at the bloc's Chicago summit last year.
The military intervention in Mali, led by France but supported by several NATO allies including the United States and Canada, pointed to the strength of being an alliance, Rasmussen said.
"The fact that individual allies are able to cooperate and operate together is due to the framework we have as an alliance," Rasmussen said. "Our military equipment can operate together, our personnel can operate together, because they know each other."
Rasmussen outlined three priorities for 2013: to "hold the line" on defence investment; to start closing spending gaps between countries as economies begin to recover; and to fill gaps in the alliance's capabilities through deeper cooperation.
"There is a lower limit of how little we can spend on defence, while living up to our responsibilities," Rasmussen warned.
The NATO secretary general also expressed hope that 2013 would bring a breakthrough in talks with Russia which objects to NATO's missile defence programme.
"I hope that the clarification of the political situation both in Russia and in the United States will pave the way for some progress. Our invitation to Russia to cooperate on missile defence still stands," Rasmussen said.